Short answer: Lexical Resource is 25% of your Writing band, and it marks range and precision together. That "together" is the whole criterion.
A candidate who writes "ameliorate" where "improve" belongs has demonstrated range and lost accuracy, and the descriptors charge the error — so the sentence scores below the plain version. The fastest way to raise this band is almost never to learn more words.
This is the criterion with the widest gap between what candidates study and what is marked. Word lists are studied. Collocation, register, word formation and spelling are marked.
What Lexical Resource covers — including the parts you think are grammar
| Component | What it means | Example of a loss |
|---|---|---|
| Range | Variety, and the presence of less common items | An essay written entirely in band 5 general vocabulary — accurate, but no range to reward |
| Precision / collocation | Whether the word fits the words around it | "do a decision", "make a research", "strong rain" |
| Word formation | The right part of speech from the family | "economical growth", "a significant of people", "analysis the data" |
| Spelling | Marked here, not under grammar | "goverment", "enviroment", "wich" — frequent enough, it caps the band |
Two of those four are why candidates with large vocabularies score 6.5. Word formation and collocation are properties of how a word is stored, and a list does not store them.
The band ladder, in plain English
| Band | Descriptor, in short | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Limited range, "minimally adequate" for the task; noticeable errors in spelling and word formation that may cause the reader some difficulty | The same six words carrying the whole essay, with errors the reader has to work around. |
| 6 | Adequate range; attempts less common vocabulary "with some inaccuracy"; some errors in spelling and word formation that do not impede communication | A real attempt at academic vocabulary, with two or three words in the wrong collocation per paragraph. |
| 7 | "A sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision"; uses less common items "with some awareness of style and collocation"; occasional errors in word choice, spelling or word formation | The words fit. A few reach too far, and the examiner notices — but notices as ambition, not as confusion. |
| 8 | "A wide range of vocabulary fluently and flexibly to convey precise meanings"; skilful use of uncommon items with occasional inaccuracy in choice and collocation; rare errors in spelling and word formation | Precision, not rarity. The reader never stops on a word. |
The band 7 phrase to internalise is "flexibility and precision". Not "advanced". A precise common word beats an imprecise rare one at every band on this scale.
The four error types, with the fix for each
| Error type | Written | Correct | Why it is charged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collocation | "make a research on this problem" | "conduct research into this problem" | Every word is real and the combination is not English. This is the single most common band 6 marker. |
| Word formation | "economical growth has been raised" | "economic growth has risen" | Two family errors in one clause — economical means thrifty, and raise takes an object. |
| Register | "the government should sort out this stuff" | "the government should address this issue" | Informal register in an academic task, and it reads as a gap in range rather than a choice. |
| Over-reach | "a myriad of plethora of benefits" | "a wide range of benefits" | Two rare items stacked, one used wrongly. This is the memorised-language penalty in action. |
The memorised-language penalty
Examiners are trained to discount language that reads as inserted rather than owned — the Speaking descriptors say so explicitly about memorised responses.
In Writing the effect arrives by a different route: a phrase that does not fit its sentence is an accuracy error, and a paragraph built from learned openers has no range of its own to reward.
The practical test: could you change one element of the phrase and still be correct? If you can write "introduce targeted measures", "introduce stricter measures" and "introduce short-term measures", you own the collocation.
If you can only produce the exact memorised string, you have one phrase, not a lexical resource — and the first time the question does not fit it, it will be used wrongly.
Collocation is the band 6 to band 7 lever
Store vocabulary as a pairing with the sentence frame it lives in. A word learned alone gives you meaning; a word learned in its collocation gives you meaning plus placement, which is what "precision" in the descriptor is asking for.
| Basic | Upgrade | The frame it fits | The misuse that costs the mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| big problem | pressing issue | "a pressing issue for policymakers" | "a pressing person", "pressing weather" — the word is restricted to problems and needs. |
| stop | curb | "curb emissions / spending / demand" | "curb the students" — curb takes an abstract, usually undesirable, mass noun. |
| very important | crucial | "crucial to economic recovery" | "very crucial" — the word is already absolute, so the intensifier is an error. |
| help | facilitate | "facilitate access to services" | "facilitate people" — facilitate takes a process, not a person. |
| get worse | deteriorate | "air quality has deteriorated" | "deteriorate the situation" — it takes no object; use worsen if you need one. |
Sixty more of these, each with its collocation and the way it backfires, are in the synonym upgrade table, and eighty topic pairings are in collocations for band 7+.
If you want the academic register specifically, the Academic Word List guide covers which parts of it are worth production and which parts are recognition-only.
How to raise this band without learning new words
- Audit your last essay for collocations, not for rare words. Underline every adjective-noun and verb-noun pair, then check three of them. Most band 6 essays have two or three broken pairs per paragraph.
- Fix the word families you already use. Economic/economical, analyse/analysis, benefit, significant/significance. It is a short list and it removes a whole error category.
- Keep the topic noun stable and vary the language around it — swapping it every sentence costs you on Coherence and usually costs precision here too.
- Delete one reach per paragraph. The word you were least sure of. In practice it is more often wrong than right, and the descriptors charge it.
- Spell-check the twenty words your topics force you to write. Government, environment, definitely, necessary, occurred, beneficial, accommodation. Spelling is marked here, and it is free marks.
The honest limit on all of this: you cannot judge your own precision, because the word felt right when you wrote it.
The Writing Checker reports Lexical Resource as a separate band with the items it marked down, which is the only way to find out whether vocabulary is genuinely your limiting criterion — for a lot of candidates it is not, and a month of word lists buys nothing.
Word Coach is the slow version: one band 7+ item a day, with its collocations and a conversation to use it in.