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This article will show you the key to success! Learn how to approach all NESA key words to tackle all question types and achieve full marks.
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NESA’s Glossary of key words sets out the same command terms across every HSC subject, and each one sets a specific depth of answer. Students usually call them HSC verbs. Get the depth wrong, by writing a two-line answer to a question that wanted an argument, or an essay to a question that wanted a list, and you lose marks before a marker has even weighed up what you know.
NESA’s Glossary of key words is a list of the command terms that turn up in HSC exam questions in every subject, from Ancient History to Chemistry. Each one tells you what kind of response to write: whether to list, describe, argue, or judge.
A marker allocates marks against a specific set of criteria, and that criteria is written around the key word in the question, not around the topic in general. Get “identify” and “analyse” confused and you can know the content cold and still lose marks, because you answered a different question to the one that was asked.
NESA is careful to say the glossary is a guide, not a rulebook. HSC questions still use plain English words like how, why and to what extent alongside the formal list, and a key word is best understood in the context of the actual question rather than recited from memory.
The same key words appear in school assessment tasks from Year 7 onward. A Year 11 English Advanced student is already being marked against them, a full year before their HSC.
A NESA key word sets the shape of an answer, but the subject sets the content. Evaluate in Mathematics means judging the size or accuracy of a result. Evaluate in Modern History means weighing a historian’s argument against the evidence. Both responses make a judgement, which is what the word demands everywhere, but what you are judging changes completely.
NESA’s own advice to teachers makes the same point directly: a key word must not be used in a way that contradicts its meaning within a particular subject, because a student’s response has to satisfy the marking guidelines for that subject specifically. Practically, that means you cannot learn a key word once and apply it identically everywhere. You learn the word, then you learn how your subject uses it.
This matters most for the words that swing between disciplines: calculate and extrapolate lean towards Maths and Science; discuss, distinguish and justify carry more weight in English and the humanities; and analyse, explain and evaluate are asked hard in both.
Use the ALARM (A Learning and Responding Matrix). It categorises key words by difficulty and response depth.
Left side = simple responses (e.g. define, list)
Right side = higher-order thinking (e.g. analyse, evaluate)
More complex = longer, more structured answers
Tip: Can’t recall the meaning of a key word? Check the mark allocation—it often hints at the level of depth needed.
Let’s take a closer look at the ALARM to see how it works.
Try to memorise the different components of ALARM. When you spot a key word in a question, refer back to this matrix to ensure you’re hitting all the necessary points for full marks.
Match the key word to a response band, then write to that band and no further. A short-answer question worth two marks that uses “identify” wants two clearly stated points, not a paragraph explaining them. A ten-mark “evaluate” question wants sustained reasoning that ends in a stated judgement, not a list of features with no verdict.
Many NSW teachers sort NESA’s key words using a framework called ALARM, short for A Learning and Responding Matrix. It groups key words from simple, single-step responses through to responses that need sustained, structured reasoning. ALARM is not a NESA document. It is a widely used classroom tool for organising NESA’s own glossary, and it is worth learning because it turns 35 separate words into four manageable bands.
| Response band | Example key words | What the answer needs |
|---|---|---|
| List | Identify, recall, outline, recount | A clearly stated point or short list. No explanation required. |
| Describe | Define, describe, clarify, classify, summarise, extract | The features or characteristics of the thing, in your own words. |
| Explain or analyse | Explain, analyse, apply, examine, compare, contrast, distinguish, interpret, synthesise, predict, deduce, extrapolate | The relationship between parts: cause and effect, similarity and difference, or how something works. |
| Evaluate or justify | Evaluate, assess, appreciate, justify, discuss, investigate, propose, recommend, critically analyse, critically evaluate | Everything in the band above, plus a stated judgement of value, effectiveness or worth, backed by reasoning. |
Two checks stop most of the marks lost to this problem. First, look at the mark allocation next to the question: a two-mark question rarely wants an “evaluate”-level response even if the wording is loose. Second, if the question stacks two verbs, such as “identify and explain”, answer both, in order, because each one is usually marked separately.
The table below carries NESA’s own wording for every term in the glossary, alongside what a strong HSC answer adds on top of the bare definition. Treat the middle column as the mark scheme and the right column as the skill that separates a pass from a Band 6 response.
| Key word | NESA’s definition | What a strong answer adds |
|---|---|---|
| Account for | State reasons for, report on. | States the reasons in order of importance, not just as a list. |
| Give an account of | Narrate a series of events or transactions. | Keeps strict chronological order and includes only relevant events. |
| Analyse | Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate implications. | Names each component, then explains how it affects the others, not just what it is. |
| Apply | Use in a different, new or unfamiliar situation. | Shows the working, not just the answer, so the marker sees the method transferred. |
| Appreciate | Make a judgement about the value of. | States which value is being judged (artistic, historical, scientific) before judging it. |
| Assess | Make a judgement of value, quality, outcomes, results or size. | Weighs the judgement against a stated standard or criterion, not a personal impression. |
| Calculate | Ascertain or determine from given facts, figures or information. | Shows every step of the working, with units carried through. |
| Clarify | Make clear or plain. | Breaks the idea into its parts before restating it more simply. |
| Classify | Arrange or include in classes or categories. | States the criterion used to sort, not only the resulting groups. |
| Compare | Show how things are similar or different. | Covers both similarity and difference, and links each point back to the question. |
| Construct | Make, build, put together items or arguments. | Builds toward a single stated position rather than listing unconnected points. |
| Contrast | Show how things are different or opposite. | Focuses on difference only, using explicit contrast language such as “unlike” or “whereas”. |
| Critically analyse | Use interpretation and reasoning to assess a range of evidence and make judgements based on detailed analysis. | Weighs conflicting evidence openly, rather than presenting only the evidence that fits the conclusion. |
| Critically evaluate | Add a degree of accuracy, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to evaluate. | Goes further than “evaluate” by questioning the criteria themselves, not only the thing being judged. |
| Deduce | Draw conclusions. | Shows the logical chain from evidence to conclusion, so the reasoning is visible. |
| Define | State meaning and identify essential qualities. | States the meaning precisely enough that it would not fit a different term. |
| Demonstrate | Show by example. | Chooses examples that prove the point, not merely illustrate it. |
| Describe | Provide characteristics and features. | Covers the features that matter for the question, not every feature available. |
| Discuss | Identify issues and provide points for and/or against. | Gives a genuine case on both sides before the response takes a position. |
| Distinguish | Recognise or note or indicate as being distinct or different from; note differences between. | Names the specific difference precisely, rather than describing both things separately. |
| Evaluate | Make a judgement based on criteria; determine the value of. | States the criteria used to judge before delivering the judgement. |
| Examine | Inquire into. | Goes beneath the surface features to the underlying cause or structure. |
| Explain | Relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident; provide why and/or how. | Answers “why” or “how” directly, with each step following from the one before it. |
| Extract | Choose relevant and/or appropriate details. | Selects only what the question needs, then explains its significance briefly. |
| Extrapolate | Infer from what is known. | States the pattern in the known data before projecting beyond it. |
| Identify | Recognise and name. | Names it precisely, in the terminology the subject uses, and stops there. |
| Interpret | Draw meaning from. | States what the source or data means, and for whom, not just what it says. |
| Investigate | Plan, inquire into and draw conclusions about. | Shows a method, not only a conclusion. |
| Justify | Support an argument or conclusion. | Anticipates the strongest objection and answers it. |
| Outline | Sketch in general terms; indicate the main features of. | Covers the main features only, in the fewest words that still make sense. |
| Predict | Suggest what may happen based on available information. | Grounds the prediction in a stated pattern or trend, not intuition. |
| Propose | Put forward, for example a point of view, idea, argument or suggestion, for consideration or action. | States a clear position and what should follow from it. |
| Recall | Present remembered ideas, facts or experiences. | Presents accurately and briefly, without adding unsupported detail. |
| Recommend | Provide reasons in favour. | Ranks the reasons, leading with the strongest. |
| Recount | Retell a series of events. | Retells in order, with nothing added or judged. |
| Summarise | Express, concisely, the relevant details. | Cuts every detail that is not load-bearing for the main point. |
| Synthesise | Putting together various elements to make a whole. | Shows how the elements relate to each other, not just that they were combined. |
The key words that carry the most marks in HSC English, analyse, evaluate, discuss and justify, are the same ones this table covers in most depth. The Year 12 English Advanced term course teaches students to build a response around NESA’s own command terms, with weekly writing feedback that checks whether an answer actually matched the verb in the question, not only whether it was well written. Matrix runs the same style of course for English Standard.
Year 12 English Advanced term course, $1,494 a term, on campus or online. Matrix teachers mark weekly writing homework against the actual HSC criteria. Term 1 2027 opens Monday 12 October.
How do you answer an “analyse” question in HSC English? Answering an “analyse” question well means identifying a technique or feature and explaining how it works to create meaning, not simply naming it. In practice, that means naming the technique, quoting the evidence, and then explaining the effect on the reader or audience, in that order, for every point you raise.
Take an unseen extract question: “Analyse how the composer uses imagery to convey a character’s isolation.” A response that only names the imagery (“the composer uses imagery of empty rooms”) is still at “identify” level. A response that reaches “analyse” adds the mechanism. The empty rooms recur each time the character is rejected, so the imagery tracks her isolation getting worse across the extract. That is what makes the ending’s crowded, noisy setting land as relief, rather than a simple change of scene.
How do you answer an “evaluate” question in HSC Biology? An “evaluate” question wants a judgement of validity, reliability or usefulness, stated against a criterion, not a description of what an experiment or model does.
Take a data-based question: “Evaluate the reliability of a student’s method for measuring transpiration rate using a potometer.” A response stuck at “describe” level explains how a potometer works. A response that reaches “evaluate” names a specific limitation instead, such as air bubbles altering the rate reading, and states what that does to the data: it inflates the measured rate. It then reaches a stated verdict on reliability. The method is only reliable if bubble-free assembly is confirmed before each trial.
| Weaker response | Stronger response |
|---|---|
| Writes a full paragraph for a two-mark “identify” question. | Matches the length of the answer to the marks available, then stops. |
| Describes a technique or process for an “evaluate” question, with no judgement stated. | States a judgement early, then supports it, in line with what “evaluate” actually wants. |
| Treats “compare” and “contrast” as the same instruction. | Covers similarity and difference for “compare”; difference only for “contrast”. |
| Answers only the first verb in a stacked instruction, such as “identify and justify”. | Answers every verb in the question, in the order they appear. |
| Uses the same method for “evaluate” in every subject. | Checks what the subject’s own marking guidelines ask “evaluate” to weigh, since it is not identical across subjects. |
With the HSC written exams running from 13 October to 5 November this year, the highest-value revision in the time remaining is verb accuracy, not new content. Four habits cover most of it.
Read the whole question before writing, and circle every key word in it. A stacked question such as “outline, then justify” needs two distinct answers, and it is easy to answer only the second half under time pressure.
Check the mark allocation against the verb. If a twelve-mark question is worded with “explain”, that is a signal the response needs more than one cause and effect chain, even though “explain” alone sits in the middle response band.
Practise past HSC papers with the glossary open beside you, and mark your own draft against the verb before you check the content. A correct fact in the wrong response shape still loses marks. Matrix’s HSC Exam Preparation courses build this exact habit, with mock exams marked against the real HSC criteria rather than just content recall.
Revisit any subject where “evaluate” or “analyse” is used differently to how your main subject uses it. English, Biology, Chemistry and Maths Advanced all use the same word for a different task, and confusing them across subjects is one of the more common ways marks are lost in the final fortnight.
Yes. NESA’s official term is key words, and its published glossary is the source both names refer to. Students and teachers commonly say HSC verbs instead, because the large majority of the list are action verbs such as analyse, evaluate and justify.
“Analyse” means breaking something into its parts and explaining how those parts relate to each other. “Evaluate” goes one step further: it wants a judgement of value, quality or effectiveness, against a stated criterion. Every “evaluate” answer needs analysis inside it, but not every “analyse” answer needs a final judgement.
Enough to show a clear chain of cause and effect, sized to the marks on offer. A four-mark “explain” question usually wants one full chain of reasoning; a longer response is only worth writing if the marks justify covering more than one cause.
No. NESA’s own advice to teachers is explicit that a key word must not be used in a way that contradicts its specific meaning within a subject. The glossary’s example is “evaluate”, which is answered differently in Mathematics than in History, even though the general definition is the same.
On the NSW Government’s NESA pages, at nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/hsc/student-guide/glossary. It is the only authoritative source. A tutoring website’s paraphrase of it, including this one, is not a substitute for checking the original wording.
NESA’s glossary itself notes that HSC questions still use self-explanatory words such as how, why and to what extent alongside the formal key word list. Answer these in plain English, in proportion to the marks available, the same way you would any other question.
Matrix’s Year 3 to 12 term courses build the skills this article covers into weekly lessons, marked against the same criteria the HSC uses, with feedback every week rather than once a term.
Term 1 2027 opens Monday 12 October, on campus across Matrix’s Sydney campuses or online through Matrix+. First Lesson Money-Back Guarantee.
Matrix Education is the leading tutoring college for Year 3 to 12 students. For the full NSW Term 1 2027 calendar, see Matrix’s term dates page.
Written by Matrix Education
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