Why You Lose Marks Even When You Know the Answer
You revised the topic. You knew the material. You filled the page. And the mark still came back low. The most common reason is not a gap in your knowledge. It is that you answered a different question from the one the examiner asked, because you answered the topic and ignored the verb. In an exam, the verb decides the marks.
Written by Michael Siaw Larbi
Every exam requirement is built around one word: the verb that tells you what to do. Define. Explain. Distinguish. Analyse. Evaluate. Recommend. That verb is not decoration. It is the instruction, and the marks are arranged behind it. Write everything you know about the topic and you can still score poorly, because the marker is not paid to reward what you know. They are paid to reward you for doing the thing the verb asked for. Miss the verb and you answer a question that was never set.
Why this matters for every paper
This is not one tutor's opinion. It is common practice across the qualifications themselves. ICAG's current syllabus grades its learning outcomes as a rising ladder of verbs, from define and explain at the lower levels to evaluate, advise and recommend at the Strategic level. ACCA currently sorts its papers into intellectual levels, and CIMA publishes its own verb hierarchy. The higher the verb, the more the marks demand a judgement, not just a recap.
This guide is built to be used, not just read. It comes with a decoder for the verbs examiners use most, a sorting drill, and a before and after rewrite you can work through. The earlier guides covered the exam room itself and making what you study stick. This one is about turning what you know into marks on the page.
The Verb Is the Whole Instruction
Read any past question and you will see the requirement almost always opens with a verb. "Explain the difference between..." "Evaluate whether..." "Recommend a course of action for..." Students train hard on the topic, the tax rule, the standard, the model, and then skim the verb in a hurry to start writing. That is the moment marks are lost. The topic tells you what to write about. The verb tells you what to do with it, and only the second thing is being marked.
Think of two requirements on the same topic. "Describe the company's options" and "Recommend the best option for the company" cover identical material, but they are not the same question. The first wants the options laid out. The second wants you to choose one and defend the choice. Give the describe answer to the recommend question and you have written something competent that earns a fraction of the marks, because half of what was on offer was the judgement you never made.
So before you write a word, decode the verb. Tap any verb below to see exactly what it is paying for, where students throw marks away, and the one move that earns them.
Command-word decoder
What is the verb actually asking for?
Tap a verb. The panel shows what it wants, the usual mistake, what earns the marks, and a sentence to start your answer.
What it asks for
Where students lose marks
What earns the marks
A sentence to start with
Verbs Climb a Ladder, and So Do the Marks
The verbs are not a flat list. They sit on a ladder of difficulty, and the same ladder runs through every professional qualification. At the bottom are verbs that ask you to reproduce knowledge: define, list, describe, identify. In the middle are verbs that ask you to do something with that knowledge: calculate, apply, analyse, distinguish. At the top are verbs that ask you to take a position: evaluate, advise, recommend, justify.
This structure is deliberate and it is public. As at writing, ICAG builds its syllabus as a progression, the lower levels asking students to define and explain, the Strategic level asking them to evaluate and advise, recommend and justify, and assess and suggest improvements. ACCA currently grades its papers by intellectual level, from knowledge and comprehension, through application and analysis, up to synthesis and evaluation, and CIMA publishes a verb hierarchy that climbs the same way, ending where the verbs are advise, evaluate and recommend. The frameworks are refreshed from syllabus to syllabus. The climb itself never changes.
The practical point is simple. A low verb wants content. A high verb wants content plus a judgement, and the judgement is where most of the marks sit. If you treat an evaluate question like an explain question, you can write a full, correct page and still leave half the marks on the table, because you never did the part that was actually being tested.
The same climb runs through ICAG, ACCA and CIMA. The higher the verb, the more the marks reward judgement over recall.
Train your eye to place a verb on this ladder the moment you read it. Below are six requirements written in the style of real exam papers. For each one, decide what the verb is really asking you to do.
Sort the verb
Where does each requirement sit?
For each requirement, tap the level the verb is asking for. Then check your answers.
1. List the main sources of a person's income for tax.
2. Calculate the material and labour cost variances.
3. Evaluate whether the company should outsource its payroll.
4. Distinguish between an operating lease and a finance lease.
5. Recommend a financing plan for the planned expansion.
6. Describe the stages of the public financial management cycle.
Watch a Weak Answer Become a Strong One
The gap between knowing the topic and earning the marks is easiest to see on a single question. Below is a typical requirement with the verb evaluate, and the kind of answer a well-prepared student often writes. Everything in it is correct. It still loses marks. Work through why, then see the version that earns them.
Before and after
One requirement, two answers
The requirement
Evaluate whether Adom Ltd should outsource its payroll function. (10 marks)
A common answer
Outsourcing payroll means paying an external provider to run the payroll instead of doing it in house. The advantages of outsourcing include saving time, reducing costs and access to specialist expertise. The disadvantages include loss of control, concerns over data security and ongoing fees. Many companies outsource payroll today.
Why it loses marks
Every sentence is true, and on an explain question it might pass. But the verb was evaluate. The answer lists advantages and disadvantages and then stops. It never weighs them against each other, it never relates them to Adom, and it never reaches a decision. On a ten mark evaluate, weighing the case and justifying a conclusion are the larger share of the marks, and this answer does not attempt them.
The marks-earning version
For Adom specifically, the saving is the cost of running a small in house function, set against two real risks: losing direct control of a process that must be accurate and on time, and handing sensitive staff data to a third party. Because Adom's payroll is small and stable, the cost saving is modest, while the confidentiality risk over employee data is significant. On balance, Adom should keep payroll in house for now, and revisit outsourcing only if the workforce grows enough to make the saving material. Same topic, but now there is a weighed case ending in a justified decision, which is exactly what evaluate asked for.
The marker is not asking what you know. They are asking whether you did what the verb told you to do.
What I Tell My Students
When a script disappoints me, the knowledge is usually there. What is missing is the answer to the actual question. A student explains beautifully when asked to evaluate, or lists when asked to recommend, and wonders why a full page scored half. I tell them to underline the verb before they plan, and to keep asking themselves one question as they write: am I still doing what the verb said? Knowledge gets you into the room. Answering the verb is what wins.
Michael Siaw Larbi
A Method You Can Use in Every Sitting
You do not need to memorise a glossary of verbs to fix this. You need a habit, and it has three steps that take seconds.
Read the verb. Before anything else, find the verb and underline it. Decide where it sits on the ladder: is it asking you to recall, to apply, or to judge? That single decision shapes the whole answer.
Plan to the verb. If it is evaluate or recommend, your plan must include a side for and a side against and a line for your conclusion, before you write a word of prose. If it is calculate, your plan is the workings. The plan is where you guarantee the marks, because it forces the shape the verb demands.
Answer the verb. As you write, keep checking that you are still doing the thing it asked. The moment you drift into explaining a topic the question did not ask you to explain, you are spending time for no marks. Finish high verbs with a clear position, because an evaluate or recommend that never lands is an evaluate that never scored.
Do This Today
Open any past question you have. Before reading the scenario, find the verb in each requirement and write next to it what that verb is paying for: recall, apply, or judge. Then look at the marks available. You will start to see that the big requirements almost always carry a high verb, and that the marks were always telling you to take a position, not just to write what you know.
Questions Students Ask
What are command words in exams?
Command words are the verbs that open a requirement, such as explain, analyse, evaluate or recommend. The verb tells you what to do with the topic, and the marks are arranged behind it. Reading the verb correctly is often the difference between a full answer and a half answer on the same material.
Why do I lose marks when I knew the topic?
Usually because you answered at the wrong level. Writing everything you know earns the recall marks, but high verbs like evaluate and recommend reserve most of their marks for judgement: weighing the case and reaching a justified conclusion. Miss that and a correct, full page can still score poorly.
What is the difference between explain and evaluate?
Explain asks you to make a point clear and say why or how it works. Evaluate asks you to weigh competing arguments and reach a judgement on the worth or merit, ending in a conclusion. Explain wants understanding; evaluate wants a decision backed by reasons. Answering one when the other was asked leaves marks unclaimed.
How do I answer an evaluate or recommend question?
Plan two sides before you write: points for, points against, then a conclusion. For recommend, choose one option and give the reasons it is best in this scenario. Always land on a clear position, because an evaluate or recommend that never reaches a decision leaves its largest marks on the table.
Do ICAG, ACCA and CIMA use the same command words?
They use largely overlapping verbs and the same underlying ladder, from recall verbs up to judgement verbs. As at writing, ICAG's syllabus builds its outcomes from define and explain up to evaluate, advise and recommend, ACCA grades its papers into intellectual levels, and CIMA publishes its own verb hierarchy. The exact frameworks evolve with each syllabus, but the principle holds across all of them: answer at the level the verb demands.
What is the fastest way to stop losing these marks?
Underline the verb before you plan, decide whether it wants recall, application or judgement, and shape your plan to match. Then check as you write that you are still doing what the verb asked. It is a habit that costs seconds and protects the largest marks on the paper.
This is the eleventh guide in the Excellence Blueprint, MSL Business School's study and exam technique series. A new guide publishes every week, written by Michael Siaw Larbi.
