Here is a link to some useful IELTS advice regarding synonyms: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JebH7ae94u24q2DjSv-QqA
Note that the various words presented in the vocabulary list on the other end of that link aren’t necessarily better or worse than other words you might use. The point is that you should try to vary your language by learning how to use synonyms (different words with similar meanings). This goes for writing in English generally and not just the English test (that’s why a range of vocabulary gets you high marks – it demonstrates better English writing).
The tricky part is to understand the nuance of the different words. Which word is better in which sentence to express what subtleties of meaning? If you are learning English at this high level there are two main ways of learning this:
1. Read a lot and read extensively.
2. Input the word you are learning into concordancing software and study the resulting concordance lines to see how it used. Here is a link to a useful corpus for students preparing for IELTS to meet university entrance requirements: https://app.sketchengine.eu/#concordance?corpname=preloaded%2Fbawe2
How to use the concordancing software?
First, enter the word or phrase you want to study in the ‘Simple search’ field then click ‘SEARCH’. This will generate a list of concordance lines showing how your chosen word or phrase is used in a collection of successful UK university papers. The screenshots below show my example using the phrase ‘distinguish between’.
If you learn anything interesting about English vocabulary usage through your concordancing work, let us know using the comments section below 