IELTS & TOEFL - The easy way to improve your vocabulary for English exams

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, I'm going to show you how to stop using lazy English and start using energetic English. How do you do this? Very easy. For the next few minutes, I'd like you to participate in a little experiment with me. I'd like you to pretend that you are a professor, and join me in checking these sentences on the board.
So, six students wrote these sentences in an English exam, and what I'd like you to do is to help me to decide which students, which two students should get the highest marks. Let's start looking at the sentences.
Number one wrote:
"It was a good lecture."

Two:
"It was an interesting lecture."
Three:
"It was an informative lecture."
Out of these three students, which student do you think should get the highest marks? Think about it. Well, according to me, it would be the third student. Let's look at another set of sentences.
Number four wrote:
"I had a bad week."
Student number five wrote:
"I had a tiring week."
And student number six wrote:
"I had an exhausting week."
Again, put on your professor's cap and tell me: which student do you think should get the best marks? Which one? Well, according to me, it would be student number six.
Now, why did we - I think you probably chose the same ones as me -, why did we choose student number three and student number six? Why did we choose these responses and why didn't we choose one and four? Because one and four use the words: "good" and "bad". And what I'd like you to learn in this lesson is to use any words when you're speaking or writing other than: "good" or "bad". Why? Because "good" and "bad" are overly used, they're rather boring words, and they're not very descriptive words; they don't tell us anything specific, they're very vague, they're very general.
What I'd like you to do instead is to do what these other students went on to do which is to be more detailed, more specific, more descriptive, more energetic, more dynamic in your speaking and in your writing. This one change will make a tremendous difference in the way that you speak and definitely in the way that you write. This is a really important lesson if you're planning to appear for the TOEFL, or the IELTS, or the TOEIC exam, or any English proficiency exam, or even if you're just in school and you're submitting assignments and essays. This one technique of getting rid of the words: "good" and "bad" and replacing them with more interesting words is going to give you a much higher score. Next, I'll show you exactly how you can do this.
So, now I'll show you how to avoid using the lazy words: "good", "nice", or "bad", and start using more powerful words instead. All right? You're going to go from the basic, to the intermediate, to the advanced level word or you could say the more vague word, general word to a clear word, to a more specific word. Okay? That's what you want to keep in mind when you're coming up with your words. I've just given you some examples, but you can certainly come up with lots of other examples.
Let's look at some of these.
A "good" meal. A "tasty" meal. A "delicious" meal.
We had a "nice" evening. Okay. We had a "fun" evening. We had an "enjoyable" evening.
It was a really "good" meeting. It was a "useful" meeting. It was a "productive" meeting.
You see how I'm adding so much more information with the more powerful vocabulary. Right? More detailed vocabulary.
We had a "nice" holiday. Well, what is "nice"? "Nice" is a very general word. If you want to stay general, you can still use a better word. So here I've given you an example: we had a "pleasant" holiday. We had a "relaxing" holiday. Okay? So... Oh, I'm sorry. We had a "pleasant" holiday. Or: we had a "delightful" holiday. That's if you want to stay more general. If, by "nice holiday", you meant that it was really a quiet holiday, then say: "quiet". A better word than "quiet" is: we had a "relaxing" holiday. Okay? So you see how you're being more specific because when I say: "I had a nice holiday", it doesn't tell you very much; just gives you a very general impression.
Let's continue with using the word: "bad". Also, another very overused word.
It was a really "bad" journey. It was a "difficult" journey. It was a "problematic" journey. "Problematic" means there were many problems that you had or that you encountered on the way, during your journey.

[zaforever]

I love your warming and sincere smile and your clear accent, that's really easy to understand, thanks a lot.

[MaZterDownLoad]

It was a productive, informative and relaxing lesson

[SandeepKumar-nfbx]

Thank you Rebecca, for giving me right direction.
I really appreciate this video of yours :)

[ahmadmuazunababa]

Thanks a lot, l'm really improving in this lesson, and definitely ms Rebecca she's a wonderful and friendly teacher. God bless u.

[ahmedaboulez]

Dear Mrs. Rebecca,
Thanks so much for all of your interested topics you have selected. I impressed with your wonderful approaches and strategies of teaching you have used in your demonstrations of TESL.

[songdexue]

I also love your warming and sincere smile and your clear accent, that's really easy to understand, appreciate your online course.

[KhanQtv]

My favourite teacher. The best teaching I have ever experienced. May live long teacher. Thank you so much.

[ericmark]

There's no word in the dictionary that describes my feelings right now, I'm just speechless!

[win]

Thank you teacher . You teach not only English but also the art of language. We can use the basic concept of your lecture in every language.

[Amp]

Just come across this channel and subbed. I could really use these lessons. Thank you so much.

[maweryoutube]

It is an informative lesson. Thank you

[khdr]

thank you so much prof.
i've just learnt something brand new to me.
thanks for your efforts.

[kawaiyama]

This video lesson is quite informative!

[thomasalempijevic]

Greetings,
I m a French student and your video was really delightful for me! But how can we know the real level of the words we know? I means like if its commonly used, rarely etc .

[ModernFashionLife]

thank you Rebecca for all this lessons. You are a very good teacher.

[lamamourad]

That was really productive lesson .. such execllant vocabs ..thank u REBECCA .

[nursd]

Thank you very much for this really gold lesson. It helped me not just in english but also in my social life. I started choosing and using more specific words to decribe my emotions and conditon and it helped me to understand myself better. it's really invaluable for me.
p.s Sorry for my English. My name is Nurs, 19 years old.

[djenebadiallo]

It's my first to listen you. You are the best teacher. Thank you very much!

[KakdaSon]

Hello, Mrs. Rebeca! It's very productive for me. You always have brilliant and beneficial lessons.

[shirleyfernando]

I can understand Miss Rebecca"s lessons only and its very interesting to understand than others. many thanks Miss Rebecca.All the best.