IELTS TOEFL Vocabulary for a High Score

hi welcome to right to top I'm Adam in today's video I want to talk to you about vocabulary use in your test in your English test read IELTS TOEFL TOEIC CAE any test any English test you're taking vocabulary is a very big component especially of your writing section but also your speaking section of course you need to know a lot of words for the reading section and probably for the listening a little bit as well but for the writing and speaking it's a very important component of your score now more importantly what I want to talk to you about today is what you should and shouldn't do when it comes to vocabulary okay there are three golden rules I want you to try to remember about vocabulary this includes idioms as well let's look at these uncommon uses of everyday words are more valuable than big words now what does that mean it means some of you like to memorize big words like very uncommon words very sophisticated words that you got an ax dictionary or you got from some book that you read somewhere and you think that these will be impressive to the graders but I want to tell you that usually this is going to backfire means it's going to work against you what you're better off doing is taking in everyday word and finding out the less common use of that word to use in your essay and you're speaking as well now here's an example discount versus mitigate we're going to look at both of these words I'm going to give you some more examples of both of these mitigate is the big word it's not a very big word I mean it is used somewhat regularly but it's not an everyday word people don't generally use this word you read it in newspaper sometimes if you're watching that TV news you'll probably hear it but in everyday speech you probably won't okay whereas this count I hope you understand that this count is not only a noun it can also be a verb so if you can use this count as a verb you're showing the graders that you know more than one use of this particular word okay uncommon versus big uncommon will win most times also don't force words into your essays don't find a big word or even an uncommon word and try to squeeze it in somewhere just to have it in your essay okay better to be simple and correct and clear and easy to understand then sophisticated with words that just don't seem very match okay try to be natural if the word doesn't fit in like it like it regularly it's probably not a good word okay here's an example even the toughest attempt 8 understands the power of numbers now some of you might know what this word 4/10 it means most of you probably don't many native English speakers don't know this word because it's not a common word it is rarely used okay first of all potentate means a very strong leader a ruler a dictator a king it has the word potent in it potent is an adjective it means strong potent is an everyday word okay potent drink potent medicine potentate not a very common word that's an SAT word or a GRE word that you might see on those tests okay now why not just say even the toughest ruler even the toughest King even the toughest dictator understands the power of numbers numbers meaning the power of the people right you don't want to get all the people angry because doesn't matter how strong you are numbers always win but potentate just doesn't seem naturally now what does this tell the greater it tells the greater that you memorized a bunch of big words and you're just trying to stick them into your essay to get the higher score you will not get the higher score if anything it will work against you because as the grader I'm thinking well do you really know what this word means or you just memorize it and it somehow fits into this sentence okay be careful about that and the last one and this is the most important one okay be 100% sure that you know the meaning and the usage of any word or any sophisticated word you're going to use in your essay this is especially true for idioms okay let's look at some examples okay so let's go back to mitigate what does mitigating mean first of all it means to make less severe less harsh less painful less harmful or serious it means to minimize the effect of something like a mistake an offense or something like that but notice that mitigate means to lower or to make less of something negative we don't use it for something positive we don't use it for something like neutral it's for a bad situation like a harsh or a painful situation that's what mitigate means to lower to make less or to lessen something bad okay let's look at some example sentences now doctors often prescribe tylenol which is a brand name of a medicine to patients with broken bones as a way to mitigate the pain the company offered customers various promotions in order to mitigate the steep decline in sales following the failed product launch so for example a tech company they created a new product a new phone let's say as a new smartphone and the smartphone burns and blows up obviously people lose trust and people stop buying this company's product and then there are sales go to a steep decline they fall sharply so in order to make that sharp in order to make that fall less severe to like maybe flatten it out a little bit they want to mitigate it then they'll do they'll give promotions the retail manager decided to mitigate prices so as to attract more customers now here I have three sentences all using mitigate one of them is used incorrectly do you know which one it is well let me tell you it's the last one the retail manager decided to mitigate prices you don't mitigate prices mitigate means lower but something bad prices are not bad prices are just prices you don't mitigate prices you lower prices okay so you have to be very careful if you use this word and mitigate with prices I know as a grader that you just memorize this word you thought it was a big word you're trying to use it instead of lower or decrease or reduce and you're putting it there but you're using it incorrectly you're losing points not gaining points okay so mitigates what other options do you have lower reduce or discount okay mitigate for bad things lower reduce or discount for other things discount very specific as well head off decided to discount the entire autumn collection to stimulate sales to discount means to lower prices okay that's what I mean it's very specific again to lower but to lower one thing prices I can't use discount with pain I can't use mitigate with prices make sure you know the use of each word now all of you have probably at some point have gone to a market or a store and you see something you like and you look at the price tag and you go to the cashier and you say can you give me a discount on discount so most of you know discount is a noun now you know it as a verb use discount as a verb and you'll show the graders that you have more range with vocabulary now if you don't want to use discount just be simple head office decided to lower the prices on the entire file collection autumn collection sorry lower the prices on forward discount one word which is better discount offer a discount or just to discount okay this offer a discount discount as a noun now if you really want to impress the graders know another meaning of the word discount discount also means to underestimate something or to not take something or someone into account when you think less of something basically companies that aim their advertising at older shoppers and discount the purchasing power of teens and young adults are potentially losing millions in sales okay so these companies that advertise with the older crowd in mind and that they're not taking into account how much power how much money yet teens and young adults have they're losing a lot of money so they discount this power they don't take it into account or they underestimate this power this shopping power of younger people okay let's look at some other examples idioms okay let's look at idioms now let's say you're reading an idiom book or you read an article somewhere you heard on TV something you heard these two idioms click the bucket which means to die so if someone kicks the bucket he or she is dead or to go belly up belly up basically means to fail but you could say it sort of dies now let's say you memorize these and you wanna you're writing an essay or you're speaking in the speaking section the speaking test and you want to use these let's talk about someone who died right so a person can kick the bucket a company can go belly-up a person doesn't go belly-up a company doesn't kick the bucket so first of all you have to understand which one goes with which a person click the bucket a company goes belly-up now also notice that you have to know the full idiom if you don't know the full idiom don't use it here are some examples companies that neglect their customers will quickly go belly-up they will quickly go out of business ok they will fail good sentence companies that neglect their customers will quickly bail you up not correct companies belly-up if they neglect their customers also not correct why belly-up is not a verb okay the full idiom is go belly-up if you don't have that go you don't have the idiom and you're making a mistake and you're losing points okay companies that neglect their customers will go will quickly belly button up now I've seen many times people they sort of know the idiom they know it more or less so they try to just force it in there and it's makeup whatever they don't know if you don't know the idiom in full a hundred percent correct and when to use it don't use it now let's say you say companies that neglect their customers will quickly go belly-up even if you got it correctly even if you got the goal you got the belly up you got into the right place you got it in the right meaning it's still not very good for an academic essay this is a very for informal sorry very casual idiom a little bit slang II don't use it in your essay right so even if you got it correct you still shouldn't be using it and you need to understand again the context and when to use when not to use certain words certain idioms okay so I hope that helps you a little bit understand the power and the value of vocabulary always whenever you learn a new word learn other forms of it learn if it's a noun learn if there's a verb or if there's an adjective form or if it's used in some idiom or phrasal verb etc for example in the next lesson we're going to look at the difference between effect and effect now for years you've probably been told effect with an A is a verb effect would set it with an e is an is a noun but do you know that effect with an A can also be a noun an effect with an e can also be a verb know how to use both sides okay and learn other forms of the you of the word effect with an E lots of different expressions with effect and you need to know all of these if you want to get that lexical range the basically the variety of vocabulary to show the graters that you know a lot of words okay so what's the next video I make and you'll see a more in-depth analysis of these two words for now though if you have any questions please ask below here at YouTube you can go to my facebook page my Twitter page my Instagram page and ask me questions there as well I'll be happy to help you out if you like the video wait please give me a like and subscribe to my youtube channel I'm going to have constants videos coming up to help you with all kinds of with all the areas basically of the tests that you need to prepare for and I'll see you again soon bye

Channel: Write to the Top

Views: 105,698

Keywords: ielts, ielts general test, English writing, English, writing, language test, English test, task 2, IELTS academic essay, scoring, assessment, vocabulary, structure, word choice, writetotop.com, TOEFL, independent task, independent essay, essay writing, how to write, quick tips, idioms, usage, skills, test preparation, test tips, study tips, pass the IELTS, ielts high score, toefl high score, pass toefl, Engvid Teacher Adam, TOEIC, CAE, lexical range

Id: R8FrCp4Jzjw

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 05 2016