The big idea: Part (b) is AO2: application and analysis. It asks you to take the idea in the passage and show how it works in the tradition.
From May 2017, Explain is the only command term used here.
That single change matters more than it looks. Before 2017 you might meet Analyse or Distinguish, each wanting a different answer shape. Now there is one shape to practise.
Explain means: say what it is, say why the tradition holds it, and support that with an example.
Describe (what part (b) is NOT)
- Sets out what happens or what is held
- Can be entirely accurate and still score in the bottom band
- "Muslims fast through the daylight hours of Ramadan"
- The markband word for this is descriptive
Explain (what it IS)
- Gives the reason the tradition itself gives
- Connects the idea to something else in the tradition
- "…because sawm is held to train the will and build sympathy with the hungry"
- The markband words are well-developed and supported
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Three bands, and each one names exactly what the band below is missing. Climb them in the diagram.
The paper 1 part (b) markbands from May 2017. Three bands, and two levers between them.
Interactive diagram
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Two levers, and they are named in every band: Terminology and examples.
Band 1–2: terminology incorrect, examples wrong or vague. Band 3–4: terminology mostly accurate, examples do not always support. Band 5–6: terminology accurate throughout, examples effectively support.
Nothing else changes between the bands. That is the whole ladder.
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Four sentences
Attribute and name
"In Theravāda Buddhism, dukkha is…" — who holds it, and the tradition's own term. This is the terminology lever, and it is worth doing in the first sentence.
Give the tradition's reason
Why does the tradition hold this? Not why you find it plausible. Follow the chain the tradition itself follows — anicca leads to dukkha leads to tanha.
Support it with one example
One concrete practice, text or school. "A lay Buddhist keeping the Five Precepts…" The band descriptor says effectively supported by appropriate and relevant examples — appropriate means it must actually carry the point.
Return to the passage
The question asks about the idea in relation to the text. One clause tying your explanation back to what the passage said closes the loop the question opened.
Attribute, reason, example, back to the passage.
The three things that hold answers at 3–4: An example that decorates instead of supporting. Terminology that drifts — nirvana in one sentence, "heaven" in the next. And an explanation that stops at the first because.
All three are fixable in the sentence you are already writing.
How this is tested. Here is the shape on a question of the kind the paper sets — our own wording, and a passage described rather than quoted.
The setup: The passage (described, not quoted): a few lines from a Sikh scripture in which God's name is said to be the means by which a person is carried across.
Part (b): Explain why nam japna is central to Sikh practice. [6]
A 3–4 answer
- Says Sikhs meditate on God's name daily
- Mentions prayers in the morning and evening
- Adds that Sikhs believe in one God
- Missing: any reason, and the example does not support anything
A 5–6 answer
- Attributes and names: Sikhs hold that maya and haumai hide the jot within
- Gives the reason: nam japna is how attention is turned from the self to God
- Supports it: prescribed prayers through the day, alongside kirat karni and vand chhakna
- Ties back: which is what the passage means by being carried across
Six marks, about ten minutes: That is four or five sentences written carefully — not a page.
If you are still writing at twelve minutes, you are borrowing time from a question you have not read yet.