Past exam of the Probability, statistics and options II course of the University of Oxford / 2010 / A / A2 / 1

Regard $K$ as a vector space over $F$. Since $K$ is finite, a maximal linearly independent list has finite length $d$ and is a basis. Every element is uniquely a linear combination of its $d$ basis vectors, with $q$ choices for each coefficient. Hence $\boxed{|K|=q^d}$, with $d=[K:F]$. This includes $d=1$ when the extension is trivial.