Task 2 · by section

Final revision — the words this part of the exam actually needs

This is the language for one job: it names what to hunt for in the last five minutes, and what to put in its place. The final pass, when the essay is written and there is no time to restructure anything. Almost every fix available at that point is a word swap — which is why revision is a vocabulary skill and not only a proofreading one.

The long versionwhat it is, what it costs, where it stops

20 entriesin 4 groups, each with its pattern

Guided practice3 steps, you write, then you compare

3 exercisesevery wrong option explains itself

Start here · the long version

What final revision really asks you to write

Final revision is a hunt for four specific kinds of word — vague, overclaimed, informal and repeated — and a swap for each one. It is not proofreading, and it is not rewriting.

Why a word hunt, and not a re-read

With five minutes left, re-reading an essay for quality does almost nothing: you already believe what you wrote, and you will read what you meant rather than what is on the page. What does work is hunting for specific, findable things. Four words are worth more than four minutes of general anxiety, because each of them is a defect you can see without judgement and fix without rewriting anything around it.

The four categories are stable across almost every response. Vague words — “thing”, “a lot of”, “good” — where a precise one was available for free. Overclaims — “always”, “never”, “prove” — that commit you to more than the essay supports. Register leaks — contractions, “kids”, an abbreviation — which are invisible while writing because they are correct English. And repetition, where the same content word carries three sentences because the alternative did not come to mind at the time.

What makes this a vocabulary skill rather than a proofreading one is that finding the defect is only half the job. “Very important” is easy to spot and useless to spot if you cannot produce “significant” or “critical” on demand. The hunt is worth nothing without the replacements, which is why they are listed here in pairs.

Vague

“thing”, “stuff”, “a lot of”, “good”, “bad”, “big”. Each one is a place where a precise word cost nothing.

Overclaimed

“always”, “never”, “all”, “prove”, “completely”. One counter-example destroys any of them.

Register leak

Contractions, abbreviations, “kids”, “a lot of”. Correct English, wrong room.

Repeated

The same content word three times in a paragraph. Usually one swap fixes the whole run.

What not to do with five minutes left

Do not restructure. Moving a paragraph or rewriting a topic sentence at this stage produces a response that is half old and half new, and the seam is more visible than the problem you were fixing. Do not add a new idea either: a fresh reason arriving in the last minutes has no development behind it, and it costs more than the gap it was filling.

And do not fix what is merely simple. A short, clear sentence is not a defect, and replacing it with a long one at the last moment is the most reliable way to introduce a grammar error into a paragraph that did not have one. The hunt is for defects, not for opportunities.

What it costs you to skip this

Every unrevised vague word is a free mark on Lexical Resource that was left on the table — the precise version was available and cost nothing. Every overclaim invites the counter-example an examiner will supply mentally. And register leaks cluster in the final paragraph, written fastest, which means they land on the last thing the examiner reads.

Where it stops applying

Revision cannot fix structure, cannot add development and cannot rescue a missing position. If the essay never answered the question, no word swap will make it answer. And there is a floor: an essay is not improved by making every sentence longer, and the last five minutes are exactly when that instinct produces new errors.

Examples · why precise words score better

The same sentence, twice

Lexical Resource is not a count of long words: it assesses range, precision and control. The fastest way to see that is to watch one sentence become precise. Nothing was added below except accuracy.

Vague

This is a very big problem and governments always ignore it, which isn’t good for a lot of people.

Final revision

Precise

This is a significant problem, and governments have consistently overlooked it, to the detriment of a substantial proportion of the population.

Four defects in one sentence, one of each kind: “very big” is vague, “always” is an overclaim, “isn’t” is a register leak and “a lot of” is both vague and informal. None of them needed a rewrite — each was a swap.

What the precise version earns
precision · register · range. No page here promises anyone a score: these are the things the criterion looks at, and they are the things you can control.

The bank · grouped by the job each word does

20 entries, and the pattern each one demands

Knowing a word and not its pattern is what produces a sentence that reads like a translation. The preposition, the verb form and the article are the part that carries the marks.

Vague words, and what to put in their place

Each one is a place where a precise word was available and free.

thing / stuff → factor, issue, aspect

Safe to use

Choose by what it actually is: a factor causes, an issue is disputed, an aspect is one part of something larger.

a lot of → a substantial proportion of

Safe to use

Takes “of” plus the noun. Use “number” for things you count, “amount” for a mass.

good / bad → beneficial, detrimental

Safe to use

“Beneficial to/for”, “detrimental to”. Always name who or what is affected.

big → significant, substantial

Safe to use

Before the noun. “Big problem” is not wrong, it just reports nothing about the problem.

very + adjective → one stronger adjective

Safe to use

“Very important” → “critical”. “Very” is nearly always a word that could be spent better.

get → obtain, receive, become

Watch the pattern

Choose by meaning: obtain a qualification, receive support, become worse. “Get” covers all three and reports none.

Overclaims to soften

One counter-example destroys any of these, and the examiner has one.

always / never → typically, rarely

Safe to use

Before the verb. Reports a pattern instead of a law, and survives the exception.

all / every → most, the majority of

Safe to use

“The majority of” takes a plural noun and a plural verb. Claims more than half and nothing beyond.

prove → indicate, suggest

Safe to use

Takes a clause. Research indicates; it does not prove, and you have no study to cite anyway.

completely → largely, broadly

Safe to use

Before the verb. Leaves the room your concessions need.

will → is likely to

Watch the pattern

Takes an infinitive. Turns a forecast into a probability, which is what the evidence usually supports.

Correct English, wrong room — and they cluster in the last paragraph.

don’t, isn’t, can’t → do not, is not, cannot

Safe to use

Write the full form. The fix costs one keystroke and is the most visible of the four categories.

e.g., i.e., etc. → for example, that is

Safe to use

Write them out. “Etc.” has no good replacement, so finish the list instead.

kids → children

Safe to use

The neutral word is shorter to think of than to justify.

sort out, deal with → resolve, address

Watch the pattern

Not all phrasal verbs are informal — “carry out” and “point out” are fine. These two are not.

Rhetorical questions

Costs you marks

Delete and rewrite as a statement. A question hands the argument back to the reader at the moment you should be making it.

Repetition, and the cheapest fix

Usually one swap fixes a whole run of three sentences.

the same noun three times

Safe to use

Replace the second occurrence with a pronoun and the third with a synonym. Do not replace all three.

also / and also

Watch the pattern

Two in a paragraph means ideas are being added rather than developed. Replace with a consequence.

important

Watch the pattern

The single most repeated adjective in Task 2. Significant, critical, central, decisive.

people

Safe to use

Name the group: residents, employers, commuters, students. It is more precise and it stops the repetition.

Watch two · then the mistakes

The words doing their job in a real sentence

Worked example · significant · consistently · a substantial proportion of

This is a significant problem, and governments have consistently overlooked it, to the detriment of a substantial proportion of the population.

Why it works: Four swaps, no rewriting: “very big” → “significant”, “always” → “consistently”, the contraction expanded, and “a lot of people” → a proportion of a named group. The sentence structure never changed.

Worked example · indicates · most

Research indicates that most commuters would switch to rail if services were reliable.

Why it works: “Proved” became “indicates” and “all” became “most”. Both were overclaims, and both were fixed without touching anything else in the sentence.

Studies always prove that all young people are affected by this thing.

Three overclaims and a vague noun in nine words: “always”, “prove”, “all”, and “this thing”, which names nothing at all.

Repaired: Research indicates that most young people are affected by this trend.

With two minutes left, the writer rewrote the topic sentence of Body 1.

Restructuring at the end produces a response that is half old and half new, and the seam is more visible than the problem. With five minutes left, the fixes available are word swaps.

Repaired: With two minutes left, the writer replaced four vague words and expanded two contractions.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

Revise it in three passes — one per category. No restructuring, no new ideas.

The material

Your final paragraph reads: “In conclusion, this is a very big problem and governments always ignore it. It isn’t good for a lot of people, and studies prove that things will get worse.”

Step 1Pass one: hunt the vague words

There are four things that name nothing: a size, a judgement, a quantity and a noun. List them with their replacements.

Your version0 words · minimum 8

8 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Pass two: hunt the overclaims

Step 3Pass three: the register, then write the paragraph out

Exercises · production

Choose the word that does the job and takes the right pattern

Every wrong option is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Nothing here is scored automatically.

You find “studies prove that all commuters would switch”. What is the minimum fix?

Choose an option first

Which of these is NOT a register problem in an academic essay?

Choose an option first

With four minutes left you notice Body 2 is weaker than Body 1. What should you do?

Choose an option first

The rest of the vocabulary

Where else these words are needed

Task 1 introduction

It restates what the visual shows, without reusing the words printed above it.

21 entries · 3 exercises Task 1 overview

It states the two or three biggest things the visual shows, without a single figure.

20 entries · 3 exercises Trends over time

It reports change over time: the direction, how big it was, and how fast it happened.

31 entries · 3 exercises Comparisons

It states how two or more things differ, and by how much.

22 entries · 3 exercises Processes

It reports a sequence of stages in order, with the doer left out because nobody is named.

22 entries · 3 exercises Maps

It reports what changed in a place, and exactly where.

22 entries · 3 exercises Task 2 introduction

It restates the prompt in your own words and says, without hedging into invisibility, where you stand.

19 entries · 3 exercises Body paragraphs

It opens a paragraph with one claim, develops it into a chain, and supports it without inventing sources.

21 entries · 3 exercises Task 2 conclusion

It restates the position in different words and closes without introducing anything new.

19 entries · 3 exercises