How we got there
Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.
Explain in another language · 11
1. What is the question asking?
Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: Hamlet, William Shakespeare. Grade 12 drama. What is Hamlet asked to do?
In other words — as if you have never seen this before
If you have never seen this before: Point, then evidence from your book, then the effect. One point per mark. We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.
2. What do we already know?
Read the set work in your prescribed book. This lesson does not replace that copy.
3. Which method — and why this one?
Point, then evidence from your book, then the effect. One point per mark.
4. Step-by-step working
01 / 05
Identify the given
What is Hamlet asked to do?
the questionWhy this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
02 / 05
Apply the law
His father’s ghost says Claudius murdered him and married Gertrude. Hamlet is told to revenge. The delay, and what he needs as proof, is the play.
the pointWhy this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
03 / 05
Sense-check
If the question says quote, the evidence must be words from the extract or the line, not a paraphrase.
quote only when askedWhy this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
04 / 05
Step F — Box the answer with its unit
His father’s ghost says Claudius murdered him and married Gertrude. Hamlet is told to revenge. The delay, and what he needs as proof, is the play.
Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.
05 / 05
Step H — What the marker is looking for
On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.
Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.
5. The answer
His father’s ghost says Claudius murdered him and married Gertrude. Hamlet is told to revenge. The delay, and what he needs as proof, is the play.
6. Check it like a marker
Do not start with “Hamlet is mad” as if that were the whole answer. Ask when he performs madness and when he does not.
7. A trap first-timers fall into
First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”