How to improve your IELTS vocabulary
What is one guaranteed way to give yourself the best chance of scoring high on your IELTS?
Learn a range of vocabulary and apply it across all the four tests.
What vocabulary should I learn? How many words? Remove these questions from your brain. It's not about (boring) lists or specific word counts, but instead, think of it as daily micro active learning.
So when you; listen to the radio, watch something on socials, watch a TV program, overhear people talking, see something written down- add it to your notebook of IELTS vocabulary. (I would have a small notebook that you take everywhere with you to jot these down in the moment.) My pro tip, is to guess what the word means. If you heard it in its full context, then you probably can make a guess. Or ask yourself, does it sound like another word? Have you maybe heard it before? How could I re-use it?
Let's look at a sentence together to practice guessing meaning
'He had only been learning Portuguese for a month, with no prior learning of the language or even visiting Portugal, so his Portuguese was rudimentary'
Think about what rudimentary could mean here, by looking at all parts of the sentence. The word 'only' emphasises his short period of learning Portuguese. So its likely that if someone is new to a language, it won't be advanced yet but more basic. The part of 'no prior learning' tell us he is totally new to the language. So, he is new to the language which could suggest that rudimentary might mean, simple, basic, or fundamental.
What's even more important when learning new words? You review them. Don't let it sit there. Flick back to that page you created and look at what the word means, and think about how you can use it.
Reading
Read something you actually want to read. Say you are passionate about pottery, think about looking for articles online about pottery, looking through free reading materials, or buying a magazine on arts and crafts.
- Look for new words
- Guess its meaning
- Access any free reading resources
- Read for ten minutes every day
Listen
Listen to radio stations that talk about things you enjoy or you generally enjoy their content. Hearing people express themselves differently is such a great, and quick way of accessing language.
Listen to podcasts that explore topics you enjoy
Listen to YouTube shows whilst you are doing a non-thinking task (like washing up), and plug into someone else's conversation. Need to stop midway and add a word to your notepad? Do it!
Record
We engage with so much in our day to day, so its very easy to let this fall by the wayside.
Buy a small notebook and get your day-to-day recordings down. Or use your phone and add to your saved notes.
Go beyond the word. Your notebook can have a wide range of notes. Think about creating categories, i.e; antonyms, synonyms, phrases, collocations, feelings, conjunctions, example sentences
Review
Your version of regular review will be different to someone else. You might find that every week, is regular to you, whereas someone else may find that daily review works better for them.
The key here is to review your gathered vocabulary in small doses regularly, rather than leave it all until the week before your test. If you do even five minutes every day, you will learn so many new words, expressions, and meaning, than banking on learning it all close to your test.
So give yourself a quota. 'Today I am going to learn two new words and an antonym', or, 'Today I am going to learn one new word, its synonym, and how to use it in a sentence'.
Little and often is the key here.
Resources
Try these apps to learn new vocabulary, to get a great IELTS result.
- AnkiPro
- Magoosh
- YouTube
- Memrise
- Quizlet
- Ted Talks
- The Guardian
If you have any questions about vocabulary for IELTS, don't hesitate to get in touch via Writing Lab. We're here to help you achieve the IELTS score you deserve.