The four lobes of the cerebrum
The cerebrum is the brain's large upper part; its folded cortex divides into four lobes. Frontal (front): thinking, planning, decisions, personality and voluntary movement. Parietal (top): body senses — touch, temperature, pressure, pain — and spatial awareness. Temporal (side): hearing, language and memory. Occipital (back): vision. Learn each as a two-part fact — position and function — because a position alone earns nothing; the mark scheme credits what the lobe does.
The cerebellum is not a lobe
Cerebellum — a separate structure below and behind the cerebrum, not one of the four lobes; calling it a lobe turns a correct function into a wrong answer. It controls balance and posture, the coordination and timing of voluntary movement, and learned physical skills. The distinction that scores: the frontal lobe decides and starts a movement, whereas the cerebellum smooths, times and balances it. Damage leaves movement clumsy, not impossible.
A lobe is a region, not half the brain
The cerebrum divides into two hemispheres, and each hemisphere contains all four lobes. The 1-mark structure sentence: the cerebrum has two hemispheres, each with four lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital), and the cerebellum lies below and behind them. Two consequences: a lobe is not a hemisphere (not a whole half of the brain), and damage is usually one lobe on one side, which is why injury effects are so specific.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Giving a lobe’s position, not its function
The single biggest mark-loser. Asked what the parietal lobe does, candidates give its location — at the top, behind the frontal lobe — which answers a different question. Fix it with a shape: the [lobe] is responsible for [function], for example [everyday example]. Related trap: a state one feature question answered by defining the term instead of giving a feature.
The parietal lobe scored only where its function could be recalled (Nov 2021 P1 Q20), while the more familiar temporal lobe was answered well (June 2023 P1 Q16); defining a term when one feature was asked is recorded at June 2023 P1 Q6.
Muddling the lobes, cerebellum and cerebrum
Swapping any two of the four lobes, the cerebellum and the cerebrum makes a good answer a zero. High-risk pairs: cerebellum vs a lobe (never a fifth lobe; it is the balance structure below the cerebrum); temporal vs occipital (hearing, memory, language vs vision); frontal vs parietal (plans movement vs receives body senses). Learn each with position and function.
Parts of the brain were muddled up in answers (June 2019 P1 Q16), and zero-scoring candidates treated a named structure as something it is not, thinking the corpus callosum was another part of the brain (Nov 2020 P1 Q15b).
Difference answered as two definitions
Asked for the difference between two lobes' functions, candidates write two definitions side by side: the occipital processes vision, the temporal processes hearing. Both true, but the difference is only implied — one mark. The second needs a connective — occipital processes vision, whereas temporal processes sound, memory and language, naming the axis they differ on.
Describe-the-difference items are answered as two separate definitions, with connectives such as whereas earning the second mark (June 2019 P1 Q6; June 2022 P1 Q7); the same requirement on a brain difference is at June 2023 P1 Q15.
Damage means "they cannot move"
Asked about the effect of cerebellum damage, candidates write they cannot move. That is wrong: the cerebellum does not start movement — the frontal lobe does. With it damaged, movement stays possible but clumsy, unsteady and badly timed: practised skills lose smoothness, walking is unsteady, pouring spills. Describe impaired coordination and balance, not an inability to move.
Confusing a lobe with a hemisphere
A lobe and a hemisphere are different levels of structure. A hemisphere is one whole half of the cerebrum. A lobe is one of four regions (frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital), and each exists in both hemispheres. Describing the frontal lobe as the left side of the brain names a hemisphere, not a lobe, and loses the mark. Each lobe appears twice, once per side.
Each lobe works alone, one job per place
Students picture the brain as separate boxes, one job per lobe. But the lobes are a division of labour, and almost every ability uses several together — reading a phone uses the occipital, temporal and frontal lobes. So a single difficulty can have several causes, and damage changing a behaviour does not prove it is produced there alone — a validity point.
Two marks needs two unique points
Two marks means two structurally different points, not one reworded. To guarantee two on a lobe: (1) a named function; (2) a second function or a worked consequence. Damage questions likewise need two separate impacts. A repeated point cannot be credited twice.
On a scenario, the name is not application
On a scenario, the described behaviour is the only source of AO2 marks. Not application: the name, the stem, or a copied line. What counts: tie the specific difficulty to a named lobe. AO3 needs AO2. Saying what is unaffected also counts — it rules other lobes out.
Match the answer to the command word
Read the command word first. State or name — the term only, no paragraph. Describe (2) — two unique points. Describe the difference — two roles joined by a connective. Explain — knowledge and its scenario link. Explain a strength — justify and apply, don't merely describe.
Cerebrum — the large upper part of the brain, divided into two hemispheres and into four lobes. It handles thought, the senses, memory and voluntary movement.
Frontal lobe — the lobe at the front of the cerebrum, responsible for thinking, planning, reasoning, decision making, personality and the control of voluntary movement.
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