Vocabulary test results
You made a note of your score, didn't you? You may want it later. Scores and vocabulary size The table below gives you an indication of the size of your vocabulary. Vocabulary size is important in any discussion about communicative competence. Your needs are dependent of your goals and aspirations. For example, if you want to study at the university, you need a vocabulary of at least 7,000 words.	Boost your vocabulary >>>

Test level 2
Score	Vocabulary
< 30/120	Less than 900 words
40/120	~ 2,500
50/120	~4,100
60/120	~ 5,600
70/120	~ 7,200
80/120	~ 8,800
90/120	~ 10,500
100/120	~ 12,000
110/120	~ 13,700
120/120	More than 15,000 words

If your score on the Level 2 test is lower than 4,000, you need to take the test at Level 1* for a more accurate result. If your score on the Level 2 test is close to 15,000,  you need to take the test at Level 3* for a more accurate result.

* For ForumEducation members there is a frequency database with randomly generated tests at three levels.

Common scoring among non-native speakers in ordinary schools and universities:

School level	Word knowledge	Years at school	Average scores
Elementary	500 - 2,500 words	2 - 6 years of school English	average: 1,500*
Intermediate -	2,000 - 5,000 words	4 - 9 years of school English	average: 3,200*
Intermediate +	4,500 - 11,000 words	6 - 10 years of school English	average: 6,000*
* Based on more than 200,000 tests

General comments on test results

The connection between scoring and vocabulary size is based on the assumption that the test is a fair representation of the most common words in the English language, and that taking a test of 80 to 120 words (well spread over tested frequency ranges) is enough to get a reasonably fair result. It is also based on the assumption that association is a feasible way of testing vocabulary.

We want to point out that there is no university-related scientific research that supports our figures or our assumptions. However, we believe that your test result is a strong indication of your current word knowledge as compared with other non-native learners of English.

We also want to point out that two of the best-known experts on vocabulary, Paul Nation and David Crystal, are of the opinion that it is almost impossible to test vocabulary size.
 

Words, words, words - David Crystal/Oxford University Press Learning Vocabulary in Another Language - Paul Nation/Cambridge Applied Linguistics