The idea of deconstructing exam questions effectively is offered at the altar of outcomes every year. We challenge students to think harder and deeper about what they are being asked, what they have done before, and how they could respond.
But are we really showing them how to do this well?
The four main areas that students need to be able to recognise in order to fully understand what their response to the question requires are: command words, condition words, concept words and critical words.
Deconstructing GCSE exam questions: the 4Cs
Command words
Command words tell students what they are required to do to answer the question, so we need to make sure that they know what these mean. Are these words identifying? Evaluating? Describing? Discussing? Analysing?
“Describe” can be seen as the “what is it?” command. Students need to offer a series of points, usually linked, that include all of the main features.
“Explain”, on the other hand, is the “how does this work?” command, so students need to use terms like “because” or “therefore”.
With “evaluate” questions, students should be able to more meaningfully consider which adverbs (such as “partially”, “fully”, “successfully”, “controversially”) are most useful and why.
We should be familiarising students with these words and definitions throughout the curriculum from key stage 3 onwards, and reviewing assessments to consider if they need to be reframed to include exam command words.
Rather than asking students to “write a leaflet to tell an audience”, for example, they could be asked to “write the text for a leaflet which explains to an audience”, and so on.
This would mean that Year 11s can focus on deepening their understanding around existing concepts.
More on exam preparation:
Condition words
These words set out the rules and parameters of the question. How many times have we had to award zero marks because an answer missed the point entirely?
The exam environment adds greatly to cognitive load, so we need to ensure that our students can be automatic in identifying the conditions of the question.
We can create habits through modelling and clearly articulating the thought process in accordance with the rules of the question. For example:
- “Which lines are we looking at here? Draw a circle around those now.”
- “Which sources do we need to disregard? Draw crosses through them.”
- “Why would this answer get zero marks? How can you avoid this mistake?”
It may also be helpful to give students a series of similar questions that are reliant on them identifying and responding to a condition to hone their understanding of how to do this.
Concept words
A teacher’s ability to assist with this aspect of question deconstruction relies on their knowledge of the syllabus and the glossary of key terms. These concept words will vary from subject to subject, but could include words such as “representation”, “voice”, “exact value”, “secondary effects”, “factors” and so on.
GCSE students should be able to identify these words confidently and use them to explore how marks are awarded, as well as using them appropriately within their response.
A glossary for Year 11 students should not be a list of new academic words to learn but a reminder of words that they have already been introduced to and can now apply to demonstrate their understanding.
Critical words
These words add nuance but are often overlooked by students. Are we giving students an opportunity to explore and/or select a “central idea” or a “dominant issue”? Do we ask them “to what extent” they agree with an idea? Can they isolate a “controversial issue” or a “pivotal point”?
A useful technique here is to look at the question without the critical word first with the student, and then with it. How will this change the student’s response? What difficulty does it add? What would they include now that they would not have before? What words or phrases do they know they should be using? Students should then be able to see that the critical word is a fundamental aspect of the question.
The lessons here go beyond preparation for GCSEs: teaching students to better understand what they are being asked needs to be part of curriculum design rather than something that we only teach before mock exams. That way, we are truly allowing students to develop automaticity in their own effectiveness in planning, creating and evaluating their final responses.
Lisa Lockley is an assistant headteacher
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