Yes it's a mark-able question most of the time we faced these type of question, also most of the students miss to answer properly. Compare and contrast questions means you want to check both that similarities as well as differences when you start to answer first you can talk the similarities then go for differences.
Most of the type the column form and points form answers are better than paragraph.
Another thing is always look the marks for that question then you can come up with the limitation of how much you write.