“Sketch” — what the examiner wants
How to answer a Cambridge Computer Science question that starts with Sketch (9618): Cambridge's definition, what a full-mark answer contains, the mistake that loses the mark.
Cambridge's definition
“make a simple freehand drawing showing the key features, taking care over proportions”
What earns full marks
A neat, labelled drawing that shows the essentials — a diagram, a tree, a circuit — not a work of art.
What loses the mark
Missing labels. An unlabelled sketch can be impossible to credit.
A question that uses it
Sketch the binary tree produced when the values 50, 30, 70, 20, 40 are inserted in that order.
In real past papers
None of the current-syllabus questions in the bank opens with this word yet — it is in the syllabus list, so it can still be set.
Don't confuse it with
- Write“write an answer in a specific way”3–8 marks (algorithms) or more (Paper 4 code)
- Complete“add information to an incomplete diagram or table”1 mark per entry or row
- Draw“draw a line to match a term with a description”1 mark per correct line
- Develop“take forward to a more advanced stage or build upon given information”2–6 marks
The definition follows the command-word table in the Cambridge syllabus; the guidance is ZAK's. Statistics come from the real past-paper question bank (command words are read from each question's wording). Command words and past papers are © Cambridge Assessment International Education.