Lesson preview · Answering like an economist
Command terms and evaluation
~8 min · Free to read
Imagine two students who know exactly the same economics. On a 10-mark policy question, one scores 3 and the other scores 9. The gap isn’t knowledge. It’s whether each did what one word in the question asked, such as “explain” or “evaluate”.
That word is the command word (also called a command term). It tells you what kind of answer earns the marks.
Below, three questions ask about one policy, each with a more demanding command word. Before learning any rules, pick the answer that does what each word asks.
Practice · 1 / 3
Country X has 8% unemployment, well above the 4% it usually has. Its government plans to spend more on building roads and schools. An exam asks: “Explain how this policy could reduce unemployment.” Which answer does what “explain” asks?
Key Term
Four command words
Each word asks for more than the one before. Describing (saying what is there) is the floor. On its own, it earns few marks.
- Explain: give a chain of cause and effect, with every link stated. Test: can you put “so” or “because” between each step?
- Analyse: break the issue into its parts and trace how each one works, often with a model or diagram. In the road-building answer, jobs and prices were the two parts.
- Assess: weigh how big or important something is, then say how far it goes or which factor matters most.
- Evaluate: give strengths and limitations, then a judgement (a verdict, backed by evidence, on which side wins).
You can’t evaluate a policy you haven’t explained first.
Answer “discuss” and “to what extent” questions the same way: weigh both sides, then end with a verdict.
Key Term
The evaluation toolkit
Ask these six questions of any policy. Each answer is an evaluation point.
- Short run or long run? Does the effect last, or fade?
- Who wins, who loses? New roads help builders and drivers, but taxpayers repay the borrowing.
- How long until it works? Policies act after a delay, called a time lag. In 2026, the Bank of England said a change in its interest rate can take around 18 to 24 months to have its full effect.
- What’s the trade-off? Helping one goal, such as jobs, can hurt another, such as stable prices.
- How big is the effect? A small gain may not be worth a large cost.
- What does it depend on? Name the condition that would flip your verdict.
The trade-off question has its own diagram. The short-run Phillips curve shows that, over the next few years, lower unemployment tends to come with higher inflation. When few people are out of work, firms compete for staff with higher pay. Then they pass the cost on in their prices.
So in the short run, a policy that changes total spending can’t win on both goals at once. Spending more to cut unemployment moves the economy up the curve, towards higher inflation. Raising interest rates to cut inflation moves it down, towards more unemployment. Naming that cost is an evaluation point in itself.
Policies that raise what the economy can produce, such as better training, can ease both, but slowly.
Trap · Common Misconception
"Pick a point on the curve and stay there"
In the United States in 1964, inflation was 1% and unemployment 5%. By the end of 1974, inflation was over 12% and unemployment above 7%.
Policymakers treated the curve as a menu: they kept money and spending growing fast to keep unemployment low for good. But the trade-off lasts only until people’s expectations catch up, often a few years.
Once people expect higher inflation, workers push for bigger pay rises and firms raise prices sooner. The curve shifts up, so the same low unemployment now costs more inflation. Jumps in oil prices from 1973 added to the damage.
That’s why short run versus long run is often your strongest evaluation point.
Trap · Common Misconception
"Evaluate means listing pros and cons"
A list of strengths and limitations stops one step short. End with a verdict: which side wins here, and why. “It depends” only counts if you say what it depends on, and which way each case goes.
Tip
Let the marks set the length
A 2-mark “explain” wants one linked chain: two or three sentences. A 10-mark “evaluate” wants the chain, both sides and a judgement. A page written for 2 marks steals time from the question worth 10.
Check yourself · no marks
Country X has 8% unemployment, well above its usual 4%. A student ends an evaluation of its road-building with: “It depends on many factors.” Rewrite that last line so it earns the judgement mark.
Commit to one first. Guessing and being wrong beats reading the answer cold.
Practice · 1 / 3
Country X has 8% unemployment, well above the 4% it usually has. Its government plans to spend more on building roads and schools. An exam asks: “Assess how far this policy is likely to push up inflation.” Which answer does what “assess” asks?
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