I strongly believe that vocabulary is the KEY to getting a high IELTS score in all 4 skills.
If you think your vocabulary is holding you back from a higher IELTS score, check out my 28-Ways to improve your IELTS Vocabulary post..
IELTS resources, links, apps, wordlists and podcasts
Please let me know in the comments if you find anything useful that you think I should add.
Academic Vocabulary
The Academic Word List (AWL) – PDF version and sublists
Academic Word List – with all forms (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)
Compact version of the Academic Word List – easy to print off and carry around!
Academic Word List Quizzes – the site is being updated and may not be free for much longer so make the most of it now.
EAPFoundation.com has an excellent list of Academic Collocations for IELTS here. They also have an excellent video on YouTube.
Road to Grammar also has a nice quiz using words from the AWL.
Academic Word List Practice Exercises – another good place to practice.
Try my AWL QUIZLETS!
Academic Phrase Bank – from Manchester University.
Phrasal Verbs and Formal synonyms
A-Z of formal and informal synonyms – the Plain English Campaign
My own list of irregular academic word forms with practice exercises
Try this Academic Word List Highlighter and gapfill tool.
(Taken from my A-Z of IELTS Challenge on YouTube).
Collocations
List of collocations – 42 pages of academic collocations in a PDF
50 Useful Academic collocations
Collocation Checker – Just the word
SKELL – helps you find words that go together and synonyms
Inspirassion and Ozdic – easy-to-use online collocation dictionaries
Flax is another one! (I put the word ‘raise’ in here as an example)
Find the word you need with Netspeak – read the instructions first!
Spelling and Punctuation
A simple guide and ‘Brushing up’ workbook for spelling rules
Simple punctuation guide
Reading really helps improve your spelling – get free online graded readers and more from Commonlit.org (get a full student access code when you join the Members Academy).
Useful sites for IELTS Vocabulary
Flocabulary – you can get one month free so make the most of it! Really fun way to learn vocabulary.
Scientific American A useful podcast with 1-minute IELTS-style articles
TubeQuizard is a fabulous place to do exercises based on well-chosen YouTube videos.
I really love these bite-sized Academic English mini-lectures on YouTube by Mike Gibson. All of the topics are very IELTS-focused.
Improve your vocabulary through Reading and Listening with these awesome sites:
(student subscription to Newsela and CommonLit included in the Members Academy)
Sciencedaily.com has very typical IELTS-style articles in bite-sized daily chunks.
Useful apps and websites
‘HelloTalk is a great way for students to use and develop their language skills whilst also teaching their own language. The app now has more than 10 million users and a great range of tools to help make the interaction between learners meaningful as a learning experience.’ (Nik Peachey EdTech)
- Youglish Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation.
- Ulangi ‘A better way to memorize vocabulary’
- Writebetter A chrome extension to help you write better!
- Get really useful example sentences and more with Lexico
- Try Memrise for Advanced vocabulary recycling
- See all your words as mindmaps with Visuwords
- Make your own flaschards (or borrow some) with Tinycards
- Download Anki for regular revision of new words
- How to use anki
Get more help with IELTS resources:
- Read my 28-Ways to improve your Vocabulary.
- Find the 20 best websites for IELTS Writing.
- Find the 20 best websites for IELTS Listening.
Get an intensive vocabulary upgrade in the Members Academy Course:
IELTS Vocabulary in 28 Days
On top of everything else you get in the Academy, the Vocabulary Course includes:
- a list of key vocabulary with all the words in IELTS-related sentences that you can use in the test.
- at least one Writing, Reading, Listening and Speaking Task
- a Quizlet for recycling and reviewing each topic
- a carefully-selected YouTube video that explains the issues
- a glossary of definitions
- Models for Writing Task 1 and 2
- a Speaking practice task for each topic
- extra resources and links
Learn more about the Members Academy
