Improve IELTS vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important aspect of all parts of the IELTS test, including the speaking, writing, listening and reading tests. Getting a high score on the oral exam requires that you not only avoid mistakes but also show talent. Also, it can be useful to learn phrases for the three different parts of the oral exam, to increase your fluency and coherence. Getting a high score on the writing test requires that you not only avoid mistakes but also show talent. Also, it can be useful to learn linking phrases for the writing test, in order to increase its coherence and cohesion. Linking words help increase your fluency and coherence score on the oral exam and help you score higher on the coherence and cohesion on the written exam. They are also useful on the listening and reading test to help you see how ideas are sequenced and grasp the main ideas.

In terms of the IELTS oral and written test, your lexical resource (vocabulary) accounts for 25% of your score. Therefore, part of your exam preparation should be to improve your range of vocabulary. Idioms are extremely important for the speaking test. I suggest that you learn a few and get in the habit of using them, as this is important to getting to a seven or higher for that lexical resource. To achieve this, I suggest you learn about 20 idioms that can be used for a wide range of common topics. Try to learn a few well instead of concentrating on learning as many as you can. This is because this approach often results in not being able to use them correctly or forgetting to use them.

For the writing test, start by learning vocabulary in common subject areas. Some of the most useful areas are as follows:

1. Education

2. Health

3. Media

4.Technology

5. Crime

6. The Environment

It may help to keep a vocabulary notebook and write down new words you learn along with sentences that use these words so that you can remember the context in which to use these words. The key point about learning vocabulary is to make sure you review and use it. Trying to memorize hundreds of words without reviewing or practicing their usage will result in poor retention of these words and you will not be able to recall them when test time comes around.