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: the prescribed Grade 12 set work on your school’s DBE list. Grade 12 literature. A contextual question gives you an extract and says “quote”. What do you hand in?
In other words — as if you have never seen this before
If you have never seen this before: Quote from the extract, in the language of the paper. Then explain in your own words. Do not retell the book from page 1. 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?
Paper 2. The extract is printed on the question paper.
3. Which method — and why this one?
Quote from the extract, in the language of the paper. Then explain in your own words. Do not retell the book from page 1.
4. Step-by-step working
01 / 05
Point
Name the literature and the moment in the extract.
the extractWhy 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
Point, then the quoted words, then what those words show about character, theme, or tone.
point, quote, effectWhy 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 two reasons, stop at two. Number them.
countWhy 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
An answer on the prescribed Grade 12 set work on your school’s DBE list that quotes the extract and explains one character or theme the scene shows.
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
An answer on the prescribed Grade 12 set work on your school’s DBE list that quotes the extract and explains one character or theme the scene shows.
6. Check it like a marker
A summary of the whole book, with no words from the extract, misses a contextual question.
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…”