OCR J277 Exam Technique & Command Words

A J277 exam technique handbook: what the command words in OCR’s papers want, seven model answers with weak beside strong, and how the 8-marker is banded.

Many marks in J277 are lost on technique, not content. They are lost by answering the topic instead of the question, by giving one point on a four-mark question, by writing “it is faster” with no subject, and by writing prose where Section B wanted code. This handbook teaches the shape of the answer, using OCR’s own definitions and examples quoted from real J277 papers.

What’s inside (21 pages, PDF and editable Word)

• Command words, with OCR’s definitions: 21 of the 29 in OCR’s J277 list. That is every word from OCR’s list that carried marks in six OCR J277 question papers, plus Compare and Evaluate. Each has OCR’s own definition, what it looks like in an answer box and, where it appeared, the range of marks it carried.
• Seven model answers, weak beside strong: a 1-mark State, 2-mark Describe, 3-mark Explain, 3-mark Calculate, 4-mark Describe, 6-mark Write (in OCR Exam Reference Language and in Python), and an 8-mark Discuss at Band 1 and at Band 3. The commentary says where the marks are won and lost.
• The 8-mark question: the band descriptors, abridged from OCR’s mark schemes, with a plain-English gloss, a step-by-step method and a planning grid.
• Paper 2, Section B: the rule that turns a correct algorithm written in English into no marks, what counts as Exam Reference Language, and how Design, Write, Test and Refine questions differ.
• The marks students throw away every year: twelve common mistakes, what each costs and what to do instead, citing OCR’s examiners’ reports where they name the mistake.
• A worked trace table and a pacing plan with checkpoints through the 90 minutes.
• Seven practice questions (27 marks) with answer space, a mark scheme to check against, and a score table that points to what to revise next.

Where it comes from

The tariffs and the quoted examples come from genuine OCR material only: the J277/01 specimen, the 2020 practice papers for both components, the 2023 J277/02 practice paper, the June 2024 papers for both components, OCR’s mark schemes, and the 2022 to 2025 examiners’ reports. OCR’s command-word definitions are quoted from the specification. The model answers and practice questions are written for this handbook in OCR’s style; only the quoted fragments are OCR’s.

Who it’s for

Written for students, and for parents supporting revision. Teachers can use it as a Year 11 exam-technique unit, a fortnight before mocks and again before the real papers. It works just as well on the board: put the weak and strong answers side by side and ask the class where the marks are.

Made by a practising computing teacher. If it helps your Year 11s, a review helps other teachers find it.