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Describing instead of analysing — providing basic description where 'analyse' requires judgement
“The command word 'analyse' needs to be addressed to achieve full marks and often candidates found this demanding as there was often minimal judgement demonstrated in candidate responses.”— 4GE1 Paper 1, June 2023
How to fix: 'Analyse' means investigating an issue by breaking it into components and making logical, evidence-based connections between them. After describing each reason or factor, add a judgement sentence: 'This is the most significant factor because…' or 'This matters more than X because…'. Use linking language — 'therefore', 'which means', 'as a consequence', 'most importantly' — throughout. Candidates who wrote 'firstly', 'secondly', 'most importantly', 'in addition', 'all in all' consistently achieved Level 3. Description alone, even if accurate, is capped at Level 1.