What about those Word Counts?

We're entering the heavy-duty revision season again as CAIE rolls its new 2020 version off the shelves and into the exam halls.

Questions are coming thick and fast from those trying to navigate what the mark scheme means about this, what the instructions mean about that, and one of those pesky little details - that is, word counts - is causing consternation amongst my current revision students.

Word counts are usually just a guide for how much the board is expecting the material to merit, though it's not unusual to go over the count for Question 2 (d), the one about language analysis (in the old style exam, this was Question 2 in the Reading Paper noted as 21, 22, or 23).

None of them are extremely consequential as long as you're writing enough.

The one exception is Question 1(f), the summary of Text B. The summary question (Question 3 in the old style) is definitely expecting concise expression, so if (as it is now) advising "not more than 120" words, the student needs to aim for between 110-130 and no less/no more.

If one were to write upwards of that, then the relevant brevity would be lost, and the points for concision, limited.