What Do the MYP Biology Command Terms Mean?

MYP Biology command terms are the specific verbs — like state, describe, explain, analyse or evaluate — that tell you the depth of response an assessment task needs. Each one maps to a skill level in the MYP Sciences assessment criteria, so using the wrong depth is the single most common way students lose marks.

Describe asks you to give a detailed account of what happens, with no reasoning needed — just the sequence or features. Explain asks why or how it happens, requiring cause-and-effect reasoning. A common mistake: students describe a process when the question says explain, and lose the reasoning marks entirely.

Analyse means breaking data or a process down into its component parts to identify patterns, relationships or causes. In practice, this means interpreting a graph, table or experimental result and explaining what the trend shows and why it might occur — not just describing what you see.

Evaluate means weighing up strengths and limitations to reach a supported judgement — you need a conclusion. Discuss means presenting a balanced review of different viewpoints or factors without necessarily landing on a final verdict. Evaluate always needs a stance; discuss can end more open.

Command terms are directly tied to the MYP Sciences assessment criteria (A: Knowing and understanding, B: Inquiring and designing, C: Processing and evaluating, D: Reflecting on impacts). Higher-tier terms like justify or evaluate sit in the level 7-8 descriptors, so matching your response depth to the verb is often the difference between a 5 and a 7.

Justify means giving valid reasons or evidence to support a conclusion or opinion — essentially building an argument. It's stronger than explain because it needs you to defend a specific claim, usually using scientific evidence or logic, rather than just describing a mechanism.

Usually it's because you're answering the wrong command term, not because the science is wrong. A perfectly accurate description written for an "explain" question still misses the reasoning marks — examiners (and MYP teachers using the criteria) can only credit what the command term actually asked for.

No — they overlap heavily (explain, analyse, evaluate all appear in both), but MYP command terms are tied to the four MYP Sciences criteria while DP command terms map to paper-specific mark schemes and grade descriptors for Biology. Getting comfortable with MYP terms now builds the exact skill DP Biology exams demand later.

The full glossary sits in the MYP: From Principles into Practice guide and the MYP Sciences guide, both published for teachers and schools rather than sold directly to students. Most schools share the relevant extract, and RevisionPrep's Revision Notes for MYP Biology include the command terms mapped against each criterion for quick reference.

Don't just memorise definitions — practise applying them. Take five past short-answer questions, cover the answers, and write one sentence per term explaining what response shape it demands before you attempt the actual content. This builds the habit of reading the verb before you start writing.

Yes. If your school runs the on-screen MYP eAssessment, command terms still govern how each response is marked against the same four criteria — the format changes, the marking logic doesn't. Misreading "analyse" as "describe" costs marks on-screen exactly as it would on paper.

It's almost always a command-term issue, not a knowledge gap — your child may know the biology perfectly but write description when a question demands explanation or evaluation. This is worth flagging to their teacher directly, and it's exactly the kind of skill-based gap that targeted practice with mark schemes can close quickly.

You don't need biology knowledge to help — ask your child to explain, out loud, what each command term in a question is asking them to do before they start writing. If they can't articulate the difference between describe and explain, that's the gap to fix first, and it's a quick, low-cost way to support revision at home.