Locating and retrieving information: finding and selecting explicit facts and details from unseen texts accurately, including short list and find questions (AO2).

What this dot point is asking

The WJEC reading sections in Units 2 and 3 open with retrieval questions: short list or find tasks that ask you to locate explicit information in unseen texts. To score full marks you find and select the exact facts asked for, stay inside any lines specified, and resist explaining or inferring where only facts are wanted. The skill is part of AO2 reading.

Read the question precisely

Retrieval marks are lost more often through carelessness than difficulty. The question tells you exactly what to do.

Lift or paraphrase explicit facts

A retrieval point is something the text actually states, not something you work out.

Keep each point short and separate. Markers award one mark per correct, distinct point, so clarity helps you and them.

Do not over-develop

The commonest waste of time is treating a 5-mark list question like an essay.

These questions carry no analysis marks, so explaining why a fact matters earns nothing. Note the fact and move on. The time you save is better spent on the higher-tariff analysis and evaluation questions later.

Stay inside the lines

If the question gives a line range, points outside it do not count, even if correct elsewhere in the text. The range is there to test careful reading, so treat it as a fence: read up to it and no further when selecting your points. A point you remember from later in the text, or one you assume must be true, will not be credited if it sits outside the stated lines. When you are unsure whether a detail falls inside the range, check its line number before committing it to your answer.

Why retrieval comes first

Retrieval questions open the reading section for a reason: they ease you into the text and reward careful reading before the harder analysis tasks. They are the most reliable marks on the paper, because the answers are simply there on the page, so a calm, accurate few minutes here banks easy marks and builds your familiarity with the text for the questions that follow. Treat them with the same care as the high-tariff questions, even though they take less time, because losing a retrieval mark through carelessness is the cheapest mark to lose.

Try this

Q1. What two instructions in a list question are binding? [2 marks]

• Cue. How many points to give, and which lines to take them from.

Q2. Why should you not explain your points on a retrieval question? [2 marks]

• Cue. Retrieval questions carry no analysis marks, so explanation earns nothing and wastes time needed elsewhere.