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One-sided responses on 'assess' and 'evaluate' questions — no counterbalance, capping marks at Level 2 or Level 3
“Remember that any question of 10 marks or more on this paper invites counter-balance.”— 9BS0 Paper 1, June 2023
How to fix: Treat the command word 'assess' as a hard rule: every 8-mark or higher 'assess' or 'evaluate' question MUST contain at least one explicit counter-argument. After your main case (paragraph 1), open a paragraph with 'However…', 'On the other hand…', or 'A counter-argument is…' and explain why the opposite view, an alternative cause, or a 'depends on' factor matters. Without this, the maximum reachable level is Level 2 (Paper 1/2) or Level 3 (Paper 3) regardless of how good your analysis is.