IGCSE ESL — Reading and Writing that Answer the Question

The reading paper rewards precision, not fluency. For the short-answer and note-making questions the rule is to use the passage's own words where the rubric allows it — a correct answer lifted from the text cannot be marked wrong for style — and to keep answers as short as the question permits, because a long answer containing both the right information and something contradictory is marked down. Two question types need technique rather than vocabulary: true/false-with-supporting-choice asks you to identify the sentence that justifies the answer, so the supporting quotation must be located before the choice is committed; and the summary question asks for a stated number of points drawn from a defined stretch of text, which is a counting exercise — underline candidate points, discard the examples and the repetition, then write them in your own words in connected prose within the word limit. Vocabulary questions ask what a word or phrase means IN THIS SENTENCE, so the answer is the contextual sense, not the dictionary sense; a candidate who writes the most common meaning of a word that is being used figuratively has answered a different question. Inference items (what does the writer suggest about X?) are answered by taking the literal statement and asking what must be true for it to be worth saying; the answer stays inside the passage, and where the mark scheme allows two marks, one is the inference and one is the evidence, so both must be written. Skim first for the genre and the argument, then read for the specific question: the passages get one careful read plus targeted scanning, and no number of re-reads rescues an answer that was written from a hunch.

The writing paper is marked on content and structure first, then language, so an answer that ignores the task cannot be rescued by good sentences. Before writing, note the three things the question gives you: the FORM (email, letter, article, report, speech, blog, formal or informal), the PURPOSE (to describe, argue, advise, persuade, report, recount), and the AUDIENCE (which sets the register). An article for a school magazine and a report for a principal differ in every sentence: the article uses a title, an engaging opening, first person and rhetorical questions; the report uses headings, an impersonal tone, numbered findings and recommendations, and no personal anecdote. The four skills of a high-mark letter or email are: opening with the purpose in the first line, covering every bullet the question sets (each one earns content marks, so tick them off as you write), developing each point with a reason and a detail rather than a second assertion, and closing with the action expected — with the correct complimentary close for the register ('Dear Sir/Madam' pairs with 'Yours faithfully'; a named recipient pairs with 'Yours sincerely'). For argumentative and discursive writing, the structure is a stated position, a paragraph per reason with an example or concession, a counter-argument answered, and a conclusion that restates the position in new words; accuracy is judged on range as well as control, so the answer should contain a conditional, a relative clause, a passive and at least one sentence begun with a subordinator — but each must be one you can punctuate. Connectives are graded on fit: 'however' for contrast, 'therefore' for result, 'provided that' for condition, 'in addition' to add — and overusing 'moreover' and 'furthermore' reads as a list rather than an argument. Language marks are lost to five habits that are fixable in a term: subject-verb disagreement with a separated subject ('the box of textbooks are'), the uncountable-noun errors ('advices', 'informations', 'researches'), tense drift between past narrative and present comment, the comma splice joining two independent clauses, and articles omitted before a singular countable noun. Proof-reading the last three minutes for those five is the cheapest mark gain on the paper, and it is why a candidate should leave the final four minutes unscheduled.