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Improving your vocabulary is the single most effective way to improve your IELTS score.
But where to start?
What kind of vocabulary do you need to learn for IELTS?
The best way to learn vocabulary is through discovering it in the right contexts (like Reading and Listening texts).
In this lesson, you’ll learn
There are specific topics that come up again and again in IELTS.
In order to save time, it’s important that you recognise which words are important.
In my 28-day Vocabulary Booster Course, I group the common IELTS topics into 4 main areas:
Organise your notebook so that you have pages for each topic.
Every time you do a reading or listening related to the topic, add the most relevant words.
This is a good way of memorising and recycling words that frequently come up in IELTS, so it improves. your PASSIVE knowledge and you will understand more.
Every time you do a practice test, go back through it and analyse it in detail for vocabulary.
Choose 8-10 key words and then do some research.
Check and write down:
Doing this regularly will help you retain new words by recycling them in different contexts.
Example IELTS Vocabulary topic: ARCHITECTURE
Try to write the sentences as you might use them in the test.
Here are some that I pulled out of various parts of the test:
[Task 1 Writing] ‘The construction of private housing has tripled in urban areas and nearly doubled in rural areas.’
[Task 1 Writing] “The house was demolished to make way for the shopping centre.”
[Listening test] “The disused factory has been renovated and turned into a theatre.”
[Speaking Test] ‘There are strict laws against building factories near residential areas.’
[Task 2 Writing] ‘One of the benefits of living in a rural area is the close-knit community’.
[Task 2 Writing] ‘The lack of affordable housing is a major drawback of living in a city.’
I don’t normally recommend learning words from lists, but they can be a useful starting point.
It can be difficult to know which words to write down when you’re studying by yourself, so using a reliable list as a guide might help.
I have seen a lot of terrible “IELTS Vocabulary Lists” online, so I don’t recommend that you learn from lists that you randomly find on websites.
However, there are some researched and well-known lists that you can use as a starting point, for example the Academic Word List.
In my Vocab Course I group the IELTS practice under the topics so it’s easier to review:
You need a system in place to ensure that your passive knowledge of new words (from your Reading and Listening) becomes active (so that you can use them accurately in Speaking and Writing)..
Apps like ‘Quizlet’ offer easy ways to review new words.
Here is one example from Day 9 of my Vocabulary Course (Buildings).
But also make sure that you read and listen to different text so that you see the new words regularly in different contexts so that you get a better understanding of how they are used.
My 28-Day IELTS Vocabulary Booster Course has helped hundreds of my students get over their 6.5 plateau.
It gives you ideas, lists, practice, quizzes, videos and tests, Speaking and Writing practice and models for EVERY IELTS topic.
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