- Compare vs contrast vs compare and contrast
- The 'both throughout' rule: move beyond lists
- How to answer compare and contrast questions
- Worked example: a short-answer compare and contrast
- Worked example: planning a comparative essay
- Comparison language
- Go beyond the list: explain why it matters
- Common mistakes
Quick Answer
Compare means give an account of the similarities between two or more things. Contrast means give an account of the differences. Compare and contrast means both. In IB exams you must refer to every item throughout, so each point should link the items directly, using words such as whereas, similarly or unlike, rather than describing one item and then the other.
What You'll Learn
- Compare = similarities; contrast = differences; compare and contrast = both.
- Refer to both (all) items throughout: every point should mention each item.
- Organise by feature or theme, not by item.
- Match like with like: compare the same feature of each item.
- In longer answers, explain why the similarity or difference matters.
Compare vs contrast vs compare and contrast
The IB's glossary of command terms, printed in the DP subject guides, keeps these terms separate, and the wording matters. Note the phrase they share: referring to both (all) of them throughout. That is the rule most answers break.
- Compare: 'Give an account of the similarities between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.'
- Contrast: 'Give an account of the differences between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.'
- Compare and contrast: 'Give an account of similarities and differences between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.'
- Distinguish: 'Make clear the differences between two or more concepts or items.' Usually shorter than contrast: state each difference clearly, often in a sentence.
- Outside the IB: some exam boards use compare more loosely. AQA's list, for example, defines compare as identifying similarities and/or differences. In an IB question, compare on its own means similarities.
Pro Tip
Read the command term twice. If an IB question says compare, a page of differences answers a different question. If it says compare and contrast, you need both.
The 'both throughout' rule: move beyond lists
Many students answer by writing everything about item A, then everything about item B, and leave the examiner to find the links. That is two descriptions, not a comparison. Strong answers put the items side by side in every point: the same feature, both items, in one sentence or paragraph. For example, instead of 'Mitosis produces two cells. Meiosis produces four cells.', write 'Mitosis produces two daughter cells, whereas meiosis produces four.'
Watch Out
Avoid the A then B structure. Even if all your facts are right, an answer that never links the items directly does not meet the 'referring to both throughout' part of the definition.
How to answer compare and contrast questions
This sequence works for short answers and essays. The planning step takes a minute and saves the whole answer.
- 1Identify the items and the basis for comparison. What exactly are you comparing, and on what features or criteria?
- 2Plan in a quick grid: features down the side, items across the top. Fill each cell, then mark each row as a similarity or a difference.
- 3Choose the rows that matter most for the question and the marks. Leave out trivial ones.
- 4Write point by point: one feature per sentence (short answers) or per paragraph (essays), with every item mentioned.
- 5Use explicit comparison language so each link is visible: both, similarly, whereas, unlike, in contrast.
- 6In longer answers, explain why the similarity or difference matters for the question.
- 7In an essay, finish with an overall judgement: are the items more alike or more different, and in what way that matters most?
Worked example: a short-answer compare and contrast
An illustrative science question: 'Compare and contrast mitosis and meiosis.' The planning grid gives these rows, each written with both processes in the same sentence.
- Similarity: both mitosis and meiosis follow DNA replication in interphase and both use spindle fibres to separate chromosomes or chromatids.
- Similarity: both include the stages prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
- Difference: mitosis involves one division, whereas meiosis involves two.
- Difference: mitosis produces two daughter cells that are genetically identical to the parent cell, whereas meiosis produces four cells that are genetically different from each other.
- Difference: mitosis keeps the chromosome number the same, whereas meiosis halves it, producing haploid cells.
- Difference: crossing over and independent assortment create genetic variation in meiosis but do not occur in mitosis.
Pro Tip
Notice that each line names both processes and uses the same feature for each: number of divisions against number of divisions, not number of divisions against cell size.
Worked example: planning a comparative essay
In essay subjects, compare and contrast questions reward a thematic structure. An illustrative history question: 'Compare and contrast the methods used by two authoritarian leaders to maintain power.' Rather than one half on each leader, organise by method, and inside each paragraph say where they were alike, where they differed, and why that difference matters. In IB English A, Paper 2 is a comparative essay on two works you have studied, so the same principle applies: organise by idea or technique, not by text.
- Paragraph on propaganda: how each leader used it, where the methods were similar, where they differed in aim or reach.
- Paragraph on the use of force and terror: the scale and targets in each case, and what explains the difference.
- Paragraph on economic policy: how each used it to win support or control, and how effective it was in each case.
- Paragraph on treatment of opposition and minorities: similar tools, different outcomes, or the reverse.
- Conclusion: overall, were the methods more alike than different, and which difference best explains how each kept power?
Comparison language
Use explicit linking words so the examiner can see the comparison in every sentence.
- Similarity: similarly, likewise, both, in the same way, equally, as with, also, correspondingly.
- Difference: in contrast, whereas, while, unlike, however, on the other hand, conversely, by comparison.
- Degree: more significantly, to a greater extent, less prominently, far more than, only slightly.
- Sentence patterns: 'Both X and Y..., but X... whereas Y...'; 'Unlike X, Y...'; 'X and Y differ most in...'; 'The key similarity is..., which matters because...'
Go beyond the list: explain why it matters
In short science answers, a clear set of accurate similarities and differences is often what the markscheme credits. In longer answers and essays, the strongest responses also say why a similarity or difference matters. A difference in the number of divisions matters because it explains why meiosis halves the chromosome number. A difference in how two leaders used terror matters if it explains why one regime faced more open resistance. Ask 'so what?' after each point and add one sentence that answers it whenever the marks allow.
Common mistakes
These are the errors that most often cost marks on compare and contrast questions.
- Writing about A, then B, without ever linking them.
- Giving only similarities when the question says compare and contrast, or only differences.
- Giving differences when an IB question says compare on its own.
- Mismatched features: comparing one item's cause with the other item's effect.
- Trivial points, such as surface features, while the important similarities or differences go unmentioned.
- In essays, no conclusion on whether the items are more alike or more different, or why that matters.