Guide
QCE cognitive verbs: what the verb in the question is asking for
The QCAA's cognitive verb framework — the three categories, the verbs that carry the marks in each subject, and why 'determine' is the trap.
Queensland calls them cognitive verbs, and it takes them more seriously than any other state: every QCE syllabus objective, every external-exam question and every marking-guide criterion is built on one. The QCAA published a new Cognitive verb framework in August 2025 that replaces its 2018 glossary from the end of 2025. This guide gives you the framework, the three categories the verbs sit in, and the handful that actually open QCE exam questions.
Who writes the definitions
The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). Its framework does not give dictionary definitions: each entry states the purpose of the mental operation — the techniques and processes a student uses to do it — because the QCAA wants you to ask what 'analyse' means in Biology versus in English. The 2018 glossary it replaces was dictionary-style, and the marking guides for the 2021–2025 past papers you practise on were written under it; where the two differ, this guide notes both. Everything here is in Captivate's words: the QCAA's copyright notice keeps its glossary wording outside the Creative Commons licence, so the official statements are linked at the end rather than quoted.
The three categories — QCAA's own ladder
- Retrieval and comprehension — recall, recognise, identify, define, describe, explain, calculate, summarise, sketch, use. Getting knowledge out of memory and showing you understand it. These are Objectives 1 and 2 on your marking guide.
- Analytical processes — analyse, apply, compare, contrast, classify, deduce, determine, distinguish, infer, interpret, judge, organise, reflect. Extending knowledge by reasoning about it. Objectives 3 and 4.
- Knowledge utilisation — evaluate, justify, argue, assess, create, design, devise, hypothesise, predict, propose, make decisions, solve, synthesise. Using knowledge to get something done or to decide something. Objectives 5 and 6, and the top of every extended response.
The verbs that carry the marks
Verbs that open QCE external-assessment questions, 2021–2025. Meanings are Captivate's paraphrases of the QCAA's 2025 framework — QCAA's copyright notice excludes its glossary wording from the CC BY licence — with the sense of the 2018 glossary behind the existing marking guides noted, in our words, where it differs. The official statements are linked below.
| Verb | What the QCAA verb asks for (paraphrased) | What a full answer contains |
|---|---|---|
| determine | Settle what something is — a value, a relationship or a conclusion — by calculation, investigation or careful reasoning, so the answer is definite. (The 2018 sense was the same idea: reach a conclusion after considering, observing, investigating or calculating.) | An answer you had to assemble — read the graph first, chain two formulas, resolve components, give magnitude and direction. The single most common verb in Chemistry, Physics and Maths Methods: about one Chemistry stem in three opens with it. |
| explain | Make something clear by bringing out the cause, reason, context or relationship behind it, so the reader sees how or why. (The 2018 sense also allowed a fuller account with extra relevant facts.) | The mechanism and the link to the outcome, one link per mark. Biology's dominant verb by a wide margin; Chemistry welds 'Explain your reasoning' onto a third of its stems; PE's six-mark workhorse. |
| identify | Pick out the specific thing asked for and name it. | The name. One mark. Second most common verb in Chemistry; leads Psychology with 'describe'. |
| describe | Give an account of the characteristics of something, or of what happened in an event, without going into reasons. | Features or the sequence of a process, without the why. Psychology's top verb; 'describe two X with an example of each' is a four-slot question. |
| calculate | Work a numerical value out by carrying out the mathematical steps, showing the working that gets there. (The 2018 sense said the same: a numerical answer with the stages of working shown.) | A direct formula application with working and units. Physics: 'calculate' is one formula, 'determine' is assembly. |
| predict / infer / deduce | Predict: say what you expect to happen, resting the expectation on current evidence or knowledge. Infer: reason from the facts or evidence to a conclusion they point to but do not state outright. Deduce: reason step by step from the information supplied to a conclusion that follows from it. | A conclusion plus the evidence it rests on. In Biology and Psychology these almost always come with 'Justify your response' — the justification is where the marks are. |
| compare / contrast / distinguish | Compare: look at two or more things side by side and bring out both where they are alike and where they differ. Contrast: bring out only the ways they differ. Distinguish: pick out what differs so each can be told from the other. (The 2018 sense of compare also asked for the significance of the similarities and differences.) | Compare = similarity, difference, significance — three marks, three slots. 'Distinguish between' is characteristically a stand-alone two-mark question with no stimulus. |
| justify | Show, with reasons and evidence, that a claim, decision or conclusion is sound. | Reasons and evidence for the answer you gave. Accounting: 'justify your advice using financial data and information' means quote the figures. |
| evaluate | Form a judgement about how valuable, sound or significant something is, and ground that judgement in criteria and evidence. (The 2018 sense spelt out the weighing: strengths, implications and limitations against criteria.) | A judgement against criteria, with strengths and limitations. Rare in the sciences (once in five years of Chemistry) but the top-mark verb in Accounting, Business and PE extended responses. |
| analyse | Take information apart into its components so that the trends, patterns, relationships or limitations that are not obvious at first sight come into view. (The 2018 sense: separate into parts, examine how they relate, and pick out patterns, similarities and differences.) | Parts, relationships, patterns — and what is not obvious on the surface. The core verb of English and Literature responses and of the Business/Accounting analysis questions. |
| write (a balanced equation) / draw / sketch | Draw: produce a visual representation — a diagram, graph or ray diagram. Sketch: a quick, simple drawing showing only the main features, without fine detail or exact scale. | The notation or diagram in correct form: balanced, states shown, axes labelled. Sketch means shape and key features, not plotted points. |
Traps that cost Queensland students
- Reading 'determine' as 'calculate'. 'Determine' means you must work out what to do before you do it — which value to read, which two formulas to chain. Students who reach straight for one formula lose the assembly marks, and this is the most common verb in three subjects.
- Writing an explanation with no cause. QCAA's 'explain' is about revealing a cause, reason or relationship. 'The rate increases' is a description; 'the rate increases because more particles have energy above the activation energy, so more collisions succeed' is an explanation.
- Dropping the justification. Nearly every 'predict', 'infer', 'deduce' and 'draw a conclusion' stem in Biology and Psychology says 'justify your response'. The prediction is one mark; the justification is the rest.
- Comparing without significance. A 'compare' in the sciences is marked as similarity, difference, significance. Two of three is two marks of three.
- Treating 'evaluate' as 'describe the good and bad'. In Accounting, Business and PE it needs a judgement against the criteria the question gives you, and usually a decision or recommendation that follows from it.
- Ignoring the objective the verb sits under. QCE marking guides are organised by assessment objective; if the verb is an Objective 5 or 6 verb (evaluate, justify, devise), a retrieval-level answer cannot reach the top band however accurate it is.
Which version should you learn?
Learn the 2025 framework — it is what current syllabuses point to. But when you practise on 2021–2025 past papers, the marking guides use the 2018 sense, which is a little fuller for 'explain', 'compare' and 'evaluate'. Both are noted above; the answer a good student writes satisfies either. In the app, the verb chip on every question and the verb cards in your daily session use the same paraphrased 2025 meanings.
Using this in Captivate
- When a question opens with a command term, a small chip appears above it. Tap it for the meaning and the depth typically expected before you start writing.
- In a timed sit, read the verb first and the marks second. Together they tell you the shape of the answer — a one-mark 'identify' is a name; a four-mark 'explain' is a chain of reasons.
- When you mark yourself against the solution, check the verb, not just the content. If the question said 'justify' and you only described, mark it down — that is exactly what the examiner does.
The full QCAA framework (117 verbs)
Based on the QCAA Cognitive verb framework, © State of Queensland (QCAA) 2025. QCAA excludes glossary definitions from its CC BY 4.0 licence, so these meanings are Captivate's paraphrases of what each verb is for; the official statements are in the linked document.
Showing 0 of 0.