Students lose marks on content they know — because they answered the wrong command word. Take 14 quick questions on what describe, explain, evaluate and the rest really want. Instant feedback, no account.
What is this question asking you to do?
A GCSE paper is written in a small, precise vocabulary. A perfectly accurate description written for an explain question earns nothing — the mark scheme has no marks to give it. Knowing the command word is often the difference between a 4 and a 6 on a question.
The cheapest revision win there is: take a past paper, ignore the content entirely, and circle the command word in every question. Then ask one thing per circle — what shape of answer does this want? One word? A because-sentence? Both sides and a judgement? Working shown? It trains the reading habit exams actually reward.
For the full plain-English glossary — every command word decoded, parent to parent — read what ‘describe’, ‘explain’ and ‘evaluate’ actually want. It also helps to understand how examiners actually award marks.
Command words are the instruction words at the start of an exam question — words like describe, explain, calculate or evaluate — that tell the student how to answer, not what the topic is. Exam boards publish official definitions, and mark schemes award marks according to whether the answer does what the command word asked.
Describe, explain and evaluate. The most expensive slip is writing a description when the question said explain — an explain answer needs reasons (usually the word "because"), while describe only wants what happens. Evaluate needs both sides weighed up plus a clear judgement.
Yes — it's completely free and needs no account or download. It's 14 quick questions with instant feedback on each one, built from Lightbulb's plain-English command words guide.
Yes. Command word definitions descend from a shared Ofqual list, so AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas use very similar meanings. The quiz teaches the board-agnostic shape of each answer; always check your child’s own board and subject page for the exact wording.
Take a past paper, ignore the content, and circle the command word in every question — then ask what shape of answer each one wants. Reading a few mark schemes for the same command word does more than another hour on the topic, because the marks lost were never about the topic.
Knowing the command word is half of it. Lightbulb marks your child's actual exam answers the way real mark schemes do — the first three sessions are free.
Lightbulb Learning is built by a parent, for his daughter — and now for every family facing GCSEs. These tools are free and need no account. See what Lightbulb does →