How closely do examiners stick to the mark scheme?

Hi, I'm new so not sure if I'm posting in the right place! My main form of revision is copying out Bitesize notes then just doing every past paper I can find; I've been marking them myself because I have a highlighting scheme that really helps me memorise, but I'm not sure if I've been too lenient with my marking.

For example, if the question was 'What effect does oestrogen have on the female reproduction cycle' (AQA B1 June 2015), and I put 'stops the production of FSH', but the mark scheme states, 'inhibits follicle stimulating hormone / FSH procution' would I get the mark or not?

I started noticing that they often state synonyms with '/' between as alternate options (e.g. 'release / secrete / produce'), when I had been assuming that synonyms, or answers near enough to the mark scheme (so that it is clear the candidate understands, but perhaps hasn't used the exact specified wording, or has used the correct wording in a different order) were fine.

Sorry this got quite lengthy, I just really need to know, or else I haven't been doing as well as I thought I had!

Well it's slightly wrong, as you're saying 'Stop'. Inhibit in this context, simply means discouraging (slow down?) the releasing of a certain hormone by the pituitary gland, in this case, the Follicle Stimulating Hormone.