MYP Command Terms: The Complete Guide (All Subjects)

In MYP assessment, one verb can change the entire task. A student may understand the content yet lose marks because the response does not match the thinking requested. Define needs precision. Describe needs detail. Explain needs reasons or causes. Evaluate needs a judgment supported by criteria and evidence.

For teachers, MYP command terms are more than vocabulary. They help shape questions, clarify success expectations, align tasks with criteria, and build a shared language across subjects. This guide brings the core glossary together in plain language, places the terms on a practical depth ladder, and shows how their use changes in Sciences, Mathematics, Design, Individuals and Societies, and Language and Literature.

It is ungated and ready for classroom display, planning folders, or student revision.

What Are MYP Command Terms?

The official MYP command terms document describes command terms as a shared language for teaching, learning, and assessment.

Instructional terms that indicate the level of thinking and type of performance and/or behaviour that is required of students.

A command term tells the learner what kind of intellectual action the task expects. It does not work alone. Teachers must also consider the subject criterion, strand, context, available marks, and level of sophistication appropriate to the year group. The underlying meaning of a term should remain consistent, while the quality and complexity of the response should grow across the MYP.

This is why command terms should be taught explicitly rather than explained only after an assessment. They connect closely with Approaches to Learning skills and help students transfer a thinking process from one subject to another. For a deeper look at criterion alignment.

The MYP Command Terms Depth Ladder

The ladder below is a practical teaching scaffold, not a rigid official ranking. A simple topic can make an analyse question relatively accessible, while a complex context can make a describe question demanding. Use the ladder to discuss the usual response move, then check the current subject guide and task criteria.

Level 1: Recall and Identify

Recall: Retrieve knowledge from memory.
Recognize: Notice something through familiar features or patterns.
Identify: Name the relevant item, feature, or answer.
Define: Give the exact meaning of a term, concept, or quantity.
Label: Add names or brief explanations to a diagram or graph.
List: Give several brief answers without explanation.
State: Provide a specific name, value, or answer without working.
Select: Choose the appropriate option from a set.
Write down: Record the answer directly, usually with little or no calculation.
Classify: Sort items into named groups or categories.
Measure: Obtain a value using an appropriate method or instrument.

Level 2: Describe and Apply

Annotate: Add short explanatory notes to a diagram, graph, or text.
Apply: Use knowledge, a rule, or a method in the given context.
Calculate: Produce a numerical answer and show the relevant working.
Construct: Arrange information in a logical, mathematical, or visual form.
Describe: Give a detailed account of what is present or what happens.
Determine: Find the single answer supported by the information.
Document: Record sources correctly through an accepted citation system.
Draw: Produce an accurate and appropriately labelled diagram or graph.
Estimate: Give a sensible approximate value.
Exemplify: Make an idea clear by providing a suitable example.
Find: Obtain an answer and show the relevant process.
Formulate: Express an idea, argument, model, or relationship precisely.
Outline: Give the main points briefly.
Plot: Mark data points accurately on a graph or diagram.
Present: Put information or work forward clearly for consideration.
Show: Display the steps in a calculation or derivation.
Sketch: Draw the general shape and include the important features.
Solve: Use suitable methods to reach an answer.
Use: Put knowledge or rules into practice.
Translate: Express meaning accurately in another language or dialect.
Organize: Arrange ideas or information into a clear system.

Level 3: Analyse and Interpret

Analyse: Break information into parts and explain their relationships.
Compare: Explain similarities while referring to all items throughout.
Compare and contrast: Explain both similarities and differences throughout.
Contrast: Explain differences while referring to all items throughout.
Deduce: Reach a conclusion from the information supplied.
Distinguish: Make the difference between ideas or items clear.
Examine: Investigate an issue closely, including assumptions and connections.
Explore: Follow a systematic process to discover patterns or possibilities.
Infer: Reach a conclusion from evidence that is implied rather than stated.
Interpret: Explain meaning, trends, or conclusions drawn from information.
Investigate: Study systematically to establish facts or reach findings.
Predict: State a likely outcome based on evidence or patterns.
Reflect: Think carefully about experience, process, choices, and learning.
Summarize: Capture the central idea and most important points.
Trace: Follow and record the stages of a process or algorithm.
Differentiate: Find the derivative of a function.
Integrate: Find the integral of a function.
Derive: Transform a mathematical relationship into a new one.
Hence: Use the result just obtained to reach the next result.
Otherwise: Use the preceding work if helpful, although another valid method may be used.

Level 4: Reason, Judge, and Create

Appraise: Judge the quality or value of a work, idea, or solution.
Argue: Build a persuasive position using reasons and evidence.
Comment: Give a supported judgment on a statement or result.
Create: Produce something original from ideas and imagination.
Critique: Review strengths, weaknesses, choices, and effects critically.
Demonstrate: Make an idea clear through reasoning, evidence, or examples.
Design: Produce a purposeful plan, model, or solution.
Develop: Improve, expand, or refine an idea in stages.
Discuss: Review different arguments or factors before reaching a supported conclusion.
Evaluate: Judge strengths, limitations, implications, and overall value against criteria.
Explain: Give a detailed account of how or why something occurs.
Justify: Support a decision or conclusion with valid evidence and reasoning.
Prioritize: Rank options by importance, explaining the order when required.
Prove: Establish a result through a formal sequence of logical steps.
Show that: Reach the stated result using valid working without a full formal proof.
Suggest: Propose a plausible answer, hypothesis, or solution.
Synthesize: Combine ideas or evidence to form a new understanding.
To what extent: Judge how far a claim is valid by considering supporting and opposing evidence.
Verify: Provide evidence or working that confirms a result.

Command Terms in MYP Sciences

Command terms in MYP Sciences often move from observation to reasoning. Describe reports a pattern or process. Explain connects that pattern to scientific reasons. Interpret draws meaning from data. Predict gives an expected outcome based on evidence. Design requires a workable investigation or method. Evaluate examines the quality of a method, evidence, conclusion, or solution, including limitations and improvements.

A useful classroom check is to ask whether the student has moved beyond what happened to why it happened. A scientific explanation normally needs accurate knowledge, a clear causal link, and evidence from the question or investigation.

Command Terms in MYP Mathematics

MYP Mathematics includes several terms with very precise working expectations. Show asks for the calculation or derivation steps. Show that gives the result and asks the student to reach it through valid working. Prove requires a formal logical argument. Hence signals that the previous result should be used. Otherwise indicates that another valid method may receive credit. Write down usually requires a direct answer with little or no working.

Terms such as differentiate and integrate are mathematical operations, while estimate, sketch, plot, solve, verify, and determine each require a distinct type of evidence. Teachers should make these differences visible in worked examples.

Command Terms in MYP Design

In MYP Design, command terms often follow the movement of the design cycle. Students identify a need, explain the problem, analyse research, develop ideas, design or create a solution, present evidence, justify decisions, and evaluate the final outcome. The term justify is especially important because a design choice should be connected to research, specifications, user needs, or test results.

Evaluate should not become a list of likes and dislikes. It should use criteria, evidence from testing, strengths, limitations, and realistic improvements.

Command Terms in Individuals and Societies

Individuals and Societies tasks often require evidence, perspectives, causes, consequences, and judgment. Compare and contrast must refer to both cases throughout, rather than describing one and then the other. Discuss requires a balanced review of relevant arguments or factors. Evaluate adds a judgment against clear criteria. To what extent requires a qualified conclusion that answers how far the claim is convincing.

Strong responses use specific evidence and explain why that evidence matters. More information does not automatically create more analysis.

Command Terms in Language and Literature

In Language and Literature, analyse means examining how choices create meaning or effect. Students may consider language, structure, form, style, perspective, context, and audience. Interpret develops a defensible reading of a text. Compare and contrast should connect texts continuously. Critique and evaluate require reasoned judgment, not personal preference.

Evidence should be selected and embedded purposefully. The student must explain how the evidence supports the interpretation. The command term shapes the response, while the criterion determines the qualities the teacher assesses.

Common Command Term Confusions

Identify and describe: Identify names the feature. Describe gives its characteristics or sequence.

Describe and explain: Describe tells what happens. Explain shows how or why it happens.

Discuss and evaluate: Discuss reviews relevant positions or factors. Evaluate judges them against criteria and reaches a conclusion.

Explain and justify: Explain gives reasons or causes. Justify defends a choice, claim, or conclusion.

Show and prove: Show displays valid working. Prove establishes the result through formal logic.

Students also need a structure that turns the command term into a complete response.

How Teachers Can Use Command Terms Better

1. Use the precise command term in lessons, practice tasks, and assessments.

2. Model what the term changes in an answer, not only what its definition says.

3. Match the term to the criterion, strand, complexity, and available marks.

4. Build a shared school glossary so students meet the same meaning across subjects.

5. Ask students to underline the command term and self check whether every paragraph performs the requested action.

Clear command terms improve assessment only when the rest of the task is equally clear. With the Koncepts MYP Assessment Generator, teachers can create subject appropriate questions, align tasks with MYP criteria, and produce assessment materials with more consistent cognitive demand.