Hi there! It's Asiya. How can you get a high score for your vocabulary, or Lexical
Resource as it's called in IELTS? Today I'm going to show you what IELTS examiner's
pay attention to, apart from how many words you know and what's the difference
between a band 7 and 8 scores. And what you need to do to achieve
a band 8. Ready? Let's get started!
the first big requirement is to use a wide range of vocabulary and of course
it depends on how many words you know but also there are more specific things
that IELTS examiners assess so let's have a look at them in more detail step
number one is to paraphrase if you had a wide range of vocabulary you wouldn't need
to repeat words or phrases so you shouldn't repeat words from the question
or your own words within the essay but only if it's reasonable and sensible
don't force paraphrasing I can name at least five ways to avoid word repetition
the first one would be to use pronouns it he she they that those pronouns
allow us not to repeat the noun you've just mentioned you can also change the
form of the word if you had to develop you can say development or if you had
advertisement you can say to three types you can also describe the word instead
of saying an unemployment rate you can say and percentage of people without a
job which means the same thing but you don't repeat any single word which is
great you can also add words that's when a charge would become a bar chart a
student and undergraduate student and the school and primary school let's show
that you can use words flexibly you fully understand the meaning of each
word you can also use synonyms like to go up to rise to increase to grow I have
several videos about synonyms you can use in task 2 including a PDF list of
synonyms for most common adjectives so I'm gonna link all of them in the
description box below and you can download them basically synonyms are
words which have the same meaning in reality they still have
slightly different meaning so you need to know the precise meaning of each word
in order to decide whether you can replace one word with another or in this
particular situation you can't so how can you do that a great website to find
synonyms and learn the meaning of each word is lexico.com so choose the
dictionary mode and type your word let's say an advantage then you'll be able to
see different meanings of this world and if you click synonyms you'll see list of
words you could use instead of the word advantage in this particular meaning
choose one let's say a benefit compete search now we can see each meaning of
the word benefit and if you're redefinitions you'll be able to
understand how you could use the word benefit instead of the word advantage
what I want to say is do not force paraphrasing it's a tighter fit some
words some words simply don't have synonyms try not to repeat whole phrases
that's more important and make sure that every phrase every word sounds natural
it's better to repeat a correct word than to use another word which is
incorrect number two use allocations allocations are words which are often
used together and some students can't achieve a high score in IELTS even
though they know many words because they don't combine words together they don't
know allocations let me show you a simple example let's take the votes to
do and to make you say to do homework to do shopping to do dishes but to make a
suggestion to make a reservation to make a proposal to make a mistake to make
friends to make money to make breakfast you can dramatically improve your
English if you learn patience for words you already know let
me show you how we can find them open the Oxford learner's dictionary type the
word let's say an example look for collocations dictionary these are the words
which are often used with the word example characteristic classic or prime
example if somebody an example alpha provides somebody with an example
example demonstrates something example highlights or illustrates something for
example in an example an example of something you can also find example
sentences of how to use each word if you learn new words using these dictionary
you'll be able to use them flexibly fluidly and convey precise meanings
leave the signs of a band eight or even nine score number three using uncommon
words and expressions for event eight verbal seven it's actually enough to use
a less common vocabulary compare these phrases dietary habits eating habits Oh
what people like to eat or encouraging bilingualism in children teaching to run
two or more languages I've seen a few videos on YouTube name something like
ten words which will bring you a bad night's call or seven words you must use
to get a bad line in your essay the idea is to learn several highly complex words
and then to use them in whatever essay you're writing their tactics may
actually bring your score down and let me explain your why I think quite a few
essays where students try very hard to make that as a more complex and they're
trying to use those uncommon world well they use them incorrectly so they
create mistakes instead and mistakes will bring the scholar down quickly so
try to use the best word the best phrase for each situation don't over complicate
things and also don't use memorized sentences these are sentences which are
not adapted to the topic you just insert it as it is those are easy to spot and
they're not gonna increase your score either number four writing a more formal
writing style and that's writing you should stick to a more formal writing
style and you should avoid idioms those are very informal and then only
appropriate for our speaking these are phrases like to have bitten off more
than you can chew or to beat around the bush do not use them in IELTS writing
also do not use slang and very informal phrases like I wanna I'm gonna a cop
five bucks or five quid if you're in Britain those are very informal in
general you will get a higher score in IELTS writing if you stick to a more formal
style and you can learn more about what's in formal in English by watching
this video here okay in order to show that you have a wide range of vocabulary
you should use paraphrasing allocations less common and uncommon words and
expressions and stick to more formal writing style what else well you should
avoid making mistakes you're only allowed to make some mistakes for a band 6
occasional mistakes for a band seven and rare mistakes
for a band eight basically in order to get anything from band seven up your essay
should have almost mistakes that's very important what can
you do to reduce the number of errors you make number five have your essays
checked many essays don't achieve a band 8 or even a ban7 score because
they contain too many mistakes so you can use an online service like textranch.com
to have your essay checked and then you find out what mistakes you make and
you'll learn to avoid them another great thing to do is to read magazines read
beautiful locations like an economist or the Financial Times of the New York
Times read articles slowly pay attention to what words they use how they combine
words what grammatical structure they use reading is a great way to improve
your vocabulary your grammar and to get ideas for your assets number seven
learn new vocabulary in order to get a highest score for your lexical resource
you may need to learn new words or collocations for words you already know
and here it's important to be able to memorize new words as quickly as
possible I have a video about how to learn new words more easily and also
don't forget to watch a video about how to get a band-aid scope for your grammar
thank you for watching me today good luck with your preparation and exam bye