Command Terms

Looking at the year-long Assessment Statement document (year one) (see this link for year two Assessment Statements), you will notice the recurring use of various command terms in these assessment statements.  These are carefully chosen verbs, with specific meanings and expectations for your responses.  Note that they are also divided into three categories of increasing depth, and questions of level 3 expect a more sophisticated response than level 2, etc.  This quizlet will help you review them (and ensure that you are actually answering the question given!)

Calculations and Units

You need to be able to calculate the following in the exams for the Core:

• Mean & standard deviation
• Magnification of an image
• Actual size of part of a magnified image

For now, go through your syllabus and pick out all of the assessments statements that require a calculation or a unit. Test yourself on the correct way to write each unit and its use. Know your way around your calculator and pay attention if the question asks you to show your working.

Extended Response

In paper 2 section B, you are required to answer one (SL) or two (HL) extended response questions. These are worth 20 marks. Content makes up 18 of those marks, with ‘quality of answer’ making up the other two. The questions are normally broken into three or four parts, with the first parts just a few marks each. There will be at least one which is 8 or 9 marks.

Tips:

• Practice. Ask for (more) example Paper 2 questions and the markschemes so you can get used to them. Complete them by yourself and check them as a group.
• Use the 5-minutes reading time at the start of the exam to go through each option and decide which will give you the best outcome.
• Highlight the command terms, pay attention to the number of marks available.
• Practice.
• Look for caveats in the question such as ‘…using a named example…‘ – without addressing these you will not get full marks.
• Use scientific language appropriately. If you look on the markschemes, these are often underlined, meaning that you cannot be awarded a certain mark without the correct terminology.
• Practice. You might not have written a block of text for a while, so strengthen those writing muscles!
• Use English appropriately. It is expected that two parts of the question are answered in prose style, but do not confuse this with flowery writing. 
• Write logically and check your work. One quality mark is simply for the completeness of the answer and the readability of the work – does the examiner need to skip backward and forward to understand your idea or can they read it once and get your meaning?
• If you use diagrams or charts, make sure they are clearly labeled and that you refer to them in the text. You can use pencil for these, but you must NOT use colors.
• Practice. The more you do, the more likely you are to spot patterns and go into the exam feeling confident.

Speaking of practice...

go to the practice test section under Resources, on this website.