![\"Glasses](\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/ielts\/files\/2021\/03\/Lexical-Resource.jpg\")
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In this post, we’ll take a particularly close look at the IELTS Writing Task 1 and Task 2 scoring category for vocabulary—Lexical Resource. Acccording to the official IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 rubric PDF<\/a>, the four scoring categories are: <\/p>\n The IELTS Writing Task 2 rubric PDF<\/a> shares the first three categories with Task 1, but the fourth one is called task response<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n Lexical resource is your ability to use a wide range of vocabulary correctly (without errors) and appropriately (in the proper context) in your written responses. The goal here is to have good enough vocabulary to properly paraphrase the information<\/a> you see in the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and Task 2 prompts. It should go without saying that studying vocabulary regularly will help you improve most in this area. Magoosh has (free!) IELTS vocabulary flashcards<\/a> to get you started. You should try to learn 15-20 new words each day! Beyond learning new words, however, there are a few additional steps you can take to improve your \u201cLexical Resource\u201d score.<\/p>\n As noted above, you must paraphrase the language from the visuals or question prompt as much as possible in your Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2 responses. Taking large chunks of language directly from the question and visual will definitely lower your score. Whenever you practice a Writing Task 1 or Task 2 response, make sure to study any example essays included in your practice materials. Take note of how the author paraphrases the language in the question prompt and compares it to your own paraphrases. By doing this, you can learn a lot of helpful words and phrases. <\/p>\n A second tip to boost your Lexical Resource score is to focus on avoiding redundancy in your writing. Redundancy happens when you use the same words or phrases over and over again; however, there will be some key terms that you can\u2019t avoid. For example, in our example response found in our post on vocabulary for the IELTS graph essay<\/a>, it was difficult to avoid the phrases \u201ccomputer ownership\u201d and \u201ceducation level.\u201d Other words are much easier to replace with synonyms. For instance, in Academic Task 1 responses, you will often write about numbers that \u201cincrease\u201d or \u201cdecrease.\u201d There are many synonyms for these words (be sure to check out the video for more vocabulary words):<\/p>\n Rise – Fall If you notice that you\u2019re using the same words again and again as you practice writing Academic Task 1 or Task 2 responses, work on building your knowledge of synonyms and paraphrases. A thesaurus<\/a> is a handy tool. <\/p>\n However, if at all possible, try to get feedback about the new words you use from a native English speaker. Often, the synonyms you find will have a slightly different meaning or use from the word you\u2019re trying to replace. As a general rule, you should always choose a word that you know to be correct over one that you don\u2019t know well. <\/p>\n This video will help you better describe the information on the charts:\n
What is Lexical Resource?<\/h2>\n
Tips for Scoring Well on Lexical Resource<\/h2>\n
1. Practice Paraphrasing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Avoid Redundancy<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nGo up – Go down
\nJump – Decline
\nSpike – Dip
\nSkyrocket – Plummet<\/em><\/p>\nBonus Vocab Video for IELTS Academic Writing<\/h2>\n
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