The band 7 descriptor, in plain terms
The published descriptor for lexical resource at band 7 asks for a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision, with only occasional inappropriate word choice, and only occasional spelling errors.
Three words in that sentence do the work. Range, flexibility, precision. What it does not ask for is a large vocabulary. A candidate with 2,000 words used precisely outscores one with 6,000 used vaguely, and the second is what a memorised word list produces.
So the target is word combinations, not word count.
Collocation is the actual skill
A collocation is a word that habitually travels with another. Get it right and the phrase sounds like English. Get it wrong and it is understood perfectly while sounding translated.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| make a research | conduct research |
| do a decision | make a decision |
| give an advice | give advice |
| make progress fast | make rapid progress |
| a big amount of | a substantial amount of |
| discuss about the issue | discuss the issue |
| explain me | explain to me |
This is not pedantry. Using the natural pairing is lexical precision, which is precisely what the criterion rewards, and each of the wrong forms is the kind of thing a marker notices even when they cannot say why it reads low.
Build the habit in one direction: instead of learning a word, learn the phrase it usually appears in. Learn "conduct", not just "do", for research. Learn "make rapid progress", not just "progress".
Topic vocabulary beats general vocabulary
Task 2 and Reading reward vocabulary organised by subject, because that is how essays are actually built. A candidate who can list twenty words for "education" can develop an argument. A candidate with twenty general words cannot.
The IELTS topics, as used on the test:
| Task 2 topics | Common themes |
|---|---|
| Education | curriculum, standardised testing, rote learning, vocational training |
| Technology | automation, accessibility, connectivity, digital literacy |
| Environment | emissions, depletion, consumption, conservation |
| Work | productivity, remote work, job security, work-life balance |
| Society | crime, ageing, urbanisation, media influence |
| Government | spending, welfare, public transport, crime policy |
| Health | diet, exercise, preventive care, mental health |
| Culture and media | globalisation, heritage, representation, censorship |
Two to four precise words per topic is enough to develop any of those essays. Twenty shallow words is not.
For Task 1, the vocabulary is different and mostly mechanical: rise, fall, fluctuate, level off, account for, peak, plateau, proportion, roughly, notably. Describing data well is a closed technical register rather than a broad one.
Register traps
The most costly vocabulary errors are not wrong words. They are right words in the wrong register.
Formal written English vs spoken. Task 2 rewards formal register. Do not write "a big problem", "lots of", "nowadays", "I think" in an essay. Write "a significant problem", "a substantial proportion", "currently", "it can be argued".
Register across Task 2 question types. "Do you agree or disagree" wants argument. "Discuss both views" wants both views treated seriously, not one asserted and one mentioned. "To what extent" wants a stated position and a serious concession. Using opinion language for a discuss question reads as not answering the question.
Overuse of the words you learned. A candidate who learned "significant" uses it four times in 250 words. One precise use scores; four read as a thesaurus. Variety in the choice matters more than variety in the quantity.
Idioms in writing. Natural speech idiom does not transfer to academic writing. It reads as informal, which is a register problem, not a fluency one.
Spelling is scored here too
Spelling errors sit under lexical resource, not grammar. A paragraph containing correct sophisticated words with several spelling errors loses marks in the criterion you thought you had secured.
Keep a personal list. When you write a word in practice that you are not certain of, note it. Most candidates have a short list of six or eight words that recur, and correcting those changes more than adding new ones would.
This is also why dictation works for Listening. You are training your ear to catch the spelling of words you half-know, which is exactly the gap.
How to actually build range
Record, don't read. Reading a word list teaches recognition. Producing it from memory teaches use. Close the page and write three sentences using each new word.
Use it in your own subject. Topic vocabulary sticks when it is attached to something you actually care about. A word you use in your own essay survives the test; a word you memorise in isolation does not.
Learn phrases, and one alternative. For each key phrase, learn a second way of saying it. Not a synonym, a different register: "a significant proportion" and "a substantial share". Having two is what gives you the flexibility the descriptor asks for.
Revise by rewriting. Take an old paragraph and rewrite it with better word choices. The rewrite is where the learning happens, not the reading.
Checking your own work honestly
Lexical resource is the criterion candidates self-assess worst, because a mediocre vocabulary is invisible from the inside. The words you reach for first feel like the right ones.
Marking it yourself is close to useless. Get one paragraph marked against the published descriptor by someone who knows it, and the gap is usually bigger than expected. That is what structured feedback is for, and it is the part of Writing that cannot be fixed by reading more.
The IELTS Practice Portal runs timed practice with a band calculator, and the Grammar Portal covers the accuracy half of the same criterion.
🎯 Practice What You Learned
Put these tips into action with our student practice portals:
All nine portals need a login we approve: IELTS and PTE are for enrolled students, while Grammar, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Korean and Mandarin are open to everyone. Daily practice is what actually moves a score, so use them as often as you can and keep track of your own mock results.
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