IB Exam Technique: Command Terms and Mark Schemes

After years of revision, most IB students know their subjects reasonably well by exam time. Yet marks still slip away, not because the knowledge isn't there, but because the answer doesn't match what the question actually asked. IB examiners are not looking for impressive writing; they are working through a mark scheme, and the mark scheme rewards specific things in a specific format.

IB exam technique comes down to three skills: reading the command term to know what the question requires, understanding how the mark scheme allocates points, and managing time so you don't write three pages on a two-mark question. Master these and you will score the marks you have already earned through your revision.

Why IB questions are different from what you might expect

The IB is not an essay competition. Even in subjects like History or English that involve extended writing, the examiners follow structured criteria. The difference between a 5 and a 7 in most IB subjects is not the volume of content you know; it is how precisely you respond to the question in front of you.

The IBO builds this precision into the questions deliberately through command terms: verbs that appear at the start of every question and carry a specific meaning defined in the subject guide for that course. A student who treats "Explain" and "Describe" as interchangeable is giving the wrong type of answer, no matter how much they know about the topic.

The IB command terms, from simplest to most demanding

The IBO organises command terms roughly by cognitive demand. Lower-order terms appear on shorter, structured questions worth one or two marks. Higher-order terms appear on extended response questions worth eight or more marks. Here are the most common ones across IB subjects.

These definitions come from the IBO's subject-specific guides, which every IB teacher and student can access through the IBO website. Each subject guide includes an appendix with the command terms used in that subject's assessments. Reading this appendix once, early in Year 1, is one of the highest-leverage things you can do.

How the mark scheme actually works

Most IB structured questions use what the IBO calls a point-based mark scheme. The examiner has a list of acceptable answers, and each valid point earns one mark. Three important things follow from this.

First, equivalent answers are accepted. The mark scheme does not require your exact wording. If your biology answer correctly describes the mechanism of enzyme inhibition but uses "blocks the active site" rather than "prevents substrate binding", the examiner awards the mark if both phrases convey the same correct idea. Understanding the concept is what matters, not memorising a phrase.

Second, extra irrelevant material does not lose marks on structured questions. You are not penalised for writing more than the mark scheme requires (unless a question says "identify one", in which case only the first answer is marked). But extra writing does cost time, which is your real resource.

Third, on extended response questions, the scheme shifts to band descriptors. For essays and extended writing, examiners use marking criteria divided into mark bands with descriptors like "demonstrates partial understanding" or "presents a well-developed, balanced argument." These assess the quality and structure of your thinking, not whether you hit a specific list of points. The command terms Discuss, Evaluate and To what extent almost always trigger this kind of marking.

How to approach different paper types

IB subjects structure their papers differently, but most follow a pattern worth knowing.

Short structured questions (Paper 1 or Section A of most papers) are marked per point. Read the marks in brackets after each question and write that many distinct points. A question worth [2] needs two separate, clear statements; one long paragraph saying the same thing twice earns one mark.

Data response or stimulus-based questions require you to apply knowledge to information you have not seen before. Start by reading the data, graph or source carefully before looking at the questions. Many marks are available for interpreting the stimulus correctly, not for restating background knowledge. In subjects like Economics and Sciences, always reference specific figures from the data in your answer.

Extended response essays (Paper 2 or equivalent) reward structure and argument, not information dumps. Plan before you write: decide your line of argument, identify the counter-arguments, and decide where your conclusion will land. Use the command term as your guide for what the essay must do. An Evaluate essay that never reaches a judgement, or a Discuss essay that argues only one side, will be capped at a low mark band regardless of how much content it contains.

Time management in the exam room

Running out of time is one of the most preventable sources of lost marks. As soon as you receive the paper, spend two to three minutes reading it through and noting the marks available for each section. Then allocate your time accordingly, using the rough guide of one to one-and-a-half minutes of writing time per mark.

If a question is worth two marks, stop after two clear points and move on. If a question is worth eight marks and you have used seven minutes, finish that answer. Students who write for fifteen minutes on a three-mark question and then rush the ten-mark essay are giving away marks at the end of the paper.

For calculation questions in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Economics: always show your working, even if you are not sure the method is right. IB mark schemes award method marks separately from accuracy marks. A calculation that reaches the wrong numerical answer due to an arithmetic slip can still earn most of the available marks if the method is correct and shown clearly.

The mistakes that cost marks most often

These four patterns appear repeatedly in IB examiner reports, which the IBO publishes for each exam session and makes available to teachers.

Using a lower-order response for a higher-order question. Describing when asked to Explain, or Explaining when asked to Evaluate. Check the command term before you write the first word.

Not finishing extended responses. A Discuss or Evaluate essay without a conclusion sits in a lower mark band. The conclusion does not need to be long; two or three sentences that directly address the question and reach a reasoned position are enough.

Lifting phrases from the stimulus without analysis. Data response questions want you to interpret the stimulus, not quote it. Saying "as shown in Figure 1, GDP rose" earns nothing; explaining why that rise is significant in the context of the question earns marks.

Not checking units and significant figures in science and maths papers. An answer to a physics question is incomplete without the correct unit. A recurring note in IB Physics examiner reports is that candidates lose marks by omitting units on calculated answers. Check before moving on.

Practising exam technique before your mocks

Knowing the command terms and marking conventions is only useful if you actually practise applying them before you sit in the real exam. The research on retrieval practice consistently shows that practising recall under exam conditions produces stronger retention than passive review. Roediger and Karpicke, writing in Psychological Science in 2006, found that students who practised retrieving information significantly outperformed those who spent the same time re-reading, even when tested a week later. The same principle applies to practising full exam answers under timed conditions.

Doing past paper questions is straightforward enough. What is hard is reviewing your answers rigorously: did you actually respond to the command term? Did your mark-scheme check tell you whether your Evaluate was truly balanced? Without someone to mark the answer properly, you often just confirm what you already know.

This is the part where most students give up. Root was built by an IB student around the IB's actual exam structure and does two things nothing else does: it is an adaptive tutor that learns exactly how your brain thinks and which explanations click for you, and an AI manager of your studying that builds the plan and schedules the work so you do not have to track it yourself. The part most useful here is Test Prep mode: it runs timed practice tests, marks your written answers question by question using examiner-style criteria, and shows exactly where you lost marks and what a full-mark response needed. On the free plan you get 60 tutor messages a week across two active units, two exam-style practice tests a week with that per-question marking, a revision mode that finds your weak topics and brings them back until they hold, notes, flashcards, and a 5-day Pro trial, with no card details needed to start. Here is a full breakdown of what Root does, or try it free before your next mock.

The exam technique checklist

Before each paper, run through this:

1. Read every question on the paper before writing anything.
2. Identify the command term for each question and decide what type of answer it requires.
3. Allocate your time based on the marks per question.
4. On short-answer questions: write one distinct point per mark, then stop.
5. On extended responses: plan first. Decide your argument and where your conclusion will land before you write.
6. Reference specific data from any stimulus material.
7. Show all working in calculations.
8. Include units on all numerical answers in science and maths.
9. Check that extended responses actually reach a conclusion.
10. If you finish early, re-read your answers checking for command-term alignment, not just content.

Good exam technique does not replace thorough revision. But it does ensure that the revision you have done actually shows up in your marks. Understanding how your examiner reads your paper is part of the preparation, not an afterthought.

For the revision strategy that builds the underlying knowledge, see how to get a 7 in IB and how to build your IB revision timetable. For using past papers effectively, how to use past papers covers the method in detail.