What is the difference between describe and explain in VCE?

VCAA's glossary defines describe as giving the characteristics, features and qualities of something accurately, so it asks what something is like. Explain asks for a detailed account of why or how, using causes, effects, reasons or mechanisms, so it asks what makes it so. A response that lists features has described. It has not yet explained.

Do command terms mean the same thing in every VCE study?

Not exactly. VCAA says study-specific nuances can change what a term requires, and gives the example that an evaluate question needs a different response in Mathematics than in History. Use the glossary as the baseline, then check how your study design and past exam questions use the term.

Is the VCAA glossary of command terms a complete list?

No. VCAA says the list is not exhaustive or limiting, that other terms may be used, and that not every term suits every study. Exam panels use it when writing external assessment items, so it is a direct guide to what an exam question is asking for.

Do command terms apply to SACs as well as exams?

VCAA says teachers can use the glossary to build internal assessment tasks as well as to prepare students for examinations, and that examination panels use it for external items. Your school may word a SAC task differently, so read the task sheet as well.

VCE Command Terms: What Each VCAA Term Asks You to Do

Q: What do VCAA assessor reports say about command terms?

They raise it often. In the 2024 and 2025 main-sitting reports we reviewed, 9 of 10 humanities and business reports, all 6 Health and Human Development, Physical Education and Food Studies reports (4 of them naming the command term outright), and 5 of 8 science reports tell students to respond to what the command term asks. The Food Studies 2025 report, for example, says students did not give the depth the term 'explain' requires.

A VCE command term is the word at the front of a question that tells you what kind of answer earns the marks: describe, explain, evaluate and so on. VCAA publishes one glossary of 39 of them, and exam panels use it when writing external assessment items. This guide groups every term in that glossary by what it asks you to do, so you can match a question to a response style in seconds.

This guide describes the VCAA glossary of command terms as it stood on the VCAA website in October 2026. VCAA presents it as a list for VCE study designs and examinations generally, not for one study or one year level. For past exam questions in each study, start from VCE past exams (VCAA).

What does the VCAA glossary of command terms cover?

The glossary is one two-column list of terms and explanations. VCAA says it lists terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F to 10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations, and that teachers can use it to write their own assessment tasks. Exam panels use it for external items.

VCAA adds two cautions that matter for how you use it:

Do not read it too rigidly. A term can carry a particular meaning inside one discipline. VCAA's example is that an evaluate question needs a different response in Mathematics than it does in History.
It is not the whole vocabulary. The list is not exhaustive or limiting, and not every term suits every study.

VCAA also suggests students use the glossary against questions they are actually working on, not learn the terms in isolation. The groups below are built for that: find the term in a question, read what it asks for, then check your draft answer against it.

Which command terms ask you to recall or name something?

These terms ask for a short, accurate answer with little or no argument. Padding them costs time you need elsewhere.

Term	What VCAA says it asks for
name	Give the word or term used to identify an object, person, thing or place.
state	Give a specific name, value or other brief answer, with no explanation or calculation.
list	Give a series of related words, names, numbers or items, one after another.
identify	Recognise and name, or pick out, an event, feature, element or part from a list, an extended narrative or argument, or a diagram.
recall	Present ideas, facts or experiences you remember.
define	Give the precise meaning of a word, phrase, concept or physical quantity, including its essential qualities.
extract	Pick the relevant detail out of an argument, issue or artefact.
outline	Give an overview or the main features.
summarise	Retell the relevant major details concisely.
recount	Retell a series of events or steps in a process, usually in order.
account of	Describe a series of events or transactions.

Define asks for more than a label: it wants the essential qualities of the thing, not only a word that points at it.

Which command terms ask you to describe or explain?

The terms in this group look close and are not.

Term	What VCAA says it asks for
describe	Give the characteristics, features and qualities of something accurately.
explain	Give a detailed account of why or how, with reference to causes, effects, reasons or mechanisms, so that the relationships between things are clear.
account for	State reasons for something, or report on it.
clarify	Make a statement or situation easier to understand.
demonstrate	Show an idea, how something can be done, or that something is true, using examples, practical applications, algorithms or formulas.
interpret	Draw meaning from an argument, description, diagram, text or image, and decide what it signifies in context.

Describe tells the marker what something is like. Explain tells the marker what makes it so. A response to an explain question that only lists features has done the describe job, and the glossary's wording on causes, effects and mechanisms is the standard it will be held to.

VCAA's own assessor reports make the same point. The 2025 Food Studies report says students "did not provide the level of depth required by the command term 'explain'" (p. 4).

Which command terms ask you to compare or break an idea down?

Term	What VCAA says it asks for
compare	Recognise similarities and differences, and the significance of both.
contrast	Show how things are different or opposite.
distinguish	Make clear the differences between two or more arguments, concepts, opinions, data points, trends or items.
analyse	Identify the components and the significance of the relationships between them, draw out and relate implications, and judge the logic and reasonableness of the information.
examine	Consider an argument, concept, debate, data point, trend or artefact in a way that identifies assumptions, possibilities and interrelationships.
investigate	Observe, study or carry out an examination to establish facts and reach new conclusions.

Two differences in this group are easy to miss. Compare includes the significance of the similarities and differences, so listing them is not the full job. Contrast asks for differences only. If a question says compare and you give only differences, you have answered contrast.

Which command terms ask you to make a judgement?

These terms ask you to take a position and support it with reasons. A one-sided or unsupported answer does not do what the term asks.

Term	What VCAA says it asks for
discuss	Present a clear, considered and balanced argument that identifies issues and shows the strengths and weaknesses of, or points for and against, one or more ideas.
evaluate	Work out the value or amount of something, or make a judgement using the information supplied, criteria or your own knowledge, weighing the argument and evidence for and against different points.
assess	Make a judgement about, or measure or estimate, the value, quality, outcomes, size, significance, nature or extent of something.
justify	Show, prove or defend an argument, decision or point of view using reasoning and evidence from given data or other information.
recommend	Put forward or approve someone or something as suitable for a particular purpose or role.
persuade	Induce someone to do something through reasoning or argument.

VCAA's 2024 History: Revolutions report states the standard for one of these in its own words: "According to the VCAA glossary of command terms, 'evaluate' requires students to provide a clear and reasoned judgment" (p. 2).

The glossary's wording gives the practical difference. Discuss asks for the balance of an argument. Evaluate asks for that balance and then a judgement. Justify asks you to defend a position you already hold, with evidence.

Which command terms ask you to work from information?

Term	What VCAA says it asks for
calculate	Determine a numerical answer from given facts, figures or information, showing the relevant stages of the working.
apply	Use or employ something in a particular situation or context.
deduce	Draw a conclusion from given information, data, a narrative, an argument, an opinion, a design or a plan.
infer	Derive conclusions from available information or evidence, or through reasoning, not from explicit statements.
extrapolate	Infer or extend information that may not be clearly stated, from a narrative, opinion, graph or image, by assuming existing trends continue.
predict	Give an expected result of an upcoming action or event, based on available information.
suggest	Put forward a solution, hypothesis, idea or other possible answer for consideration.
propose	Put forward a point of view, idea, argument, diagram or plan, based on given data or stimulus, for consideration or action.
construct	Make or build something by arranging ideas or items, or display information in a diagrammatic or logical form.
synthesise	Combine various elements to make a whole or an overall point.

Calculate is the one term in this group that explicitly asks for working. The definition itself is the reason to write the stages down.

Deduce and infer both draw conclusions, but the glossary words them differently. Deduce starts from given information, while infer stresses reasoning past what is stated.

What do VCAA assessor reports say about command terms?

VCAA's reports raise the command term often enough to treat it as a standing instruction. In the 2024 and 2025 main-sitting reports we reviewed, the theme appears in:

9 of 10 humanities and business reports
all 6 Health and Human Development, Physical Education and Food Studies reports (4 name the command term outright; the other 2 make the same point without the phrase)
5 of 8 science reports

Counts are reports that name the theme, out of the reports in each group, and they come from our own reading of those reports. The mathematics reports fold the idea into showing working, using terms such as "verify" and "show that", so they are not counted here. The English reports ask students to cover every concept in a topic, which is a different instruction.

The Business Management 2024 report puts the general rule plainly: students "must respond directly to the question being asked rather than rely on rote-learned responses that do not directly address the question" (p. 7).

How do you use a command term in an exam?

Circle the term, then read the whole question. The same topic with a different term needs a different answer.
Match the term to its group above. Name, describe, explain, compare, judge, or work from information.
Check the marks. Give each term enough points to match the marks on offer. A single-mark state question needs a single fact. A multi-mark explain question needs linked reasons.
Check the study's own usage. VCAA says study-specific nuances apply, so look at how past questions in your study use the same term. The assessor reports for your study comment on how students answered each question.
Reread the question after you write. Ask whether your answer does what the term asks, not only whether it is true.

To put this into practice, work through marked past-paper questions in your study from VCE past exams (VCAA), and note the command term before you look at the answer. For how to use your reading time and plan answers across a paper, see how to prepare for VCE exams.

Common mistakes with command terms

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is reproduced by permission, © VCAA. See our VCAA licensing notice. The VCAA does not endorse or make any warranties regarding this study resource. VCE® is a registered trademark of the VCAA.