Judgement Collocation for IELTS: A List to Boost Your Score

Kasturika Samanta

7 min read

Updated On Oct 07, 2025

Master judgement collocations to elevate your IELTS performance! Learn precise meanings, check practical examples, and try vocabulary-building activities to refine your writing, enrich your speech, and move closer to your dream IELTS band score.

Lists of Judgement Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score
Notes
Judgement Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises
Judgement Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

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While many test-takers focus on learning advanced vocabulary, few realize how important judgement collocations are for expressing opinions, analysing situations, or describing choices. They are powerful academic nouns that can instantly elevate your lexical range when used naturally in essays, reports, or discussions.

This blog will help you understand, remember, and use judgement collocations effectively through meaning, applications, and practice exercises to enrich your IELTS vocabulary.

Lists of Judgement Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score

Judgement collocations for IELTS are useful for discussion and IELTS opinion essays, especially on ethics, leadership, or decision-making, enhancing coherence and accuracy in Speaking Part 3 answers and showing the examiner you can use natural word partnerships, not just memorized vocabulary.

Therefore, we will explore lists of the top important collocations for IELTS related to judgement in the tables below.

Judgement (Making Decisions) Collocations

These collocations describe how people make or use their sense of judgement when evaluating a situation or decision. They are common in formal and semi-formal IELTS contexts.

Collocation	Meaning	Example Sentence
Trust/rely on/depend on someone’s judgement	to believe someone can make good decisions	I completely rely on my teacher’s judgement when choosing study materials.
Showed/exercised/used good judgement	to act wisely or make sensible decisions	The manager exercised good judgement in handling the crisis calmly.
Challenged/doubted/questioned someone’s judgement	to disagree with or criticize a person’s decision	Some students questioned the examiner’s judgement after the results were released.
Use/rely on/exercise your own judgement	to make independent decisions	In the IELTS Speaking test, candidates must exercise their own judgement when answering opinion questions.
Form/come to a judgement	to reach a decision after considering information	After analysing the data, I came to the judgement that the policy was effective.
Make a sound/fair/balanced judgement	to make a reasonable or just decision	Judges are expected to make a fair judgement based on evidence.
Poor/bad/wrong judgement	to make a mistake in decision-making	His decision to ignore expert advice was a clear case of poor judgement.

Verb + Judgement Collocations

These combinations show how verbs interact with ‘judgement’ to express evaluation, reaction, or interpretation, crucial in analytical writing and Part 3 discussions.

Verb + Judgement	Meaning	Example Sentence
Exercise judgement	to apply reasoning or discretion	Teachers must exercise judgement when grading essays fairly.
Demonstrate judgement	to show reasoning ability	The candidate demonstrated good judgement in managing time effectively.
Question judgement	to express doubt about someone’s decision	The public questioned the government’s judgement on the new policy.
Base judgement on	to rely on evidence or criteria	My judgement is based on facts rather than emotions.
Pass judgement on	to criticize or make a moral decision about someone	It’s unfair to pass judgement on others without understanding their situation.
Value someone’s judgement	to appreciate or respect their decision-making ability	I’ve always valued my mentor’s professional judgement.
Influence judgement	to affect how someone decides or perceives something	Personal bias can influence a person’s judgement in an argument.

Useful Expressions with ‘Judgement’

These fixed expressions are commonly used in spoken and written English to express opinions or describe how people make decisions.

Expression	Meaning	Example Sentence
In my judgement	In my opinion	In my judgement, strict discipline helps improve academic performance.
Against my better judgement	Doing something despite believing it’s wrong	Against my better judgement, I agreed to join the risky business venture.
A distinct lack of judgement	Poor decision-making or lack of wisdom	The politician showed a distinct lack of judgement by making insensitive remarks.
An error of judgement	A mistake in decision-making	The company’s investment in that project proved to be a major error of judgement.
Show good judgement	To make a wise choice	Students who plan their study schedule show good judgement.
A lapse in judgement	A temporary failure to make good decisions	His comment during the meeting was a brief lapse in judgement.
Sound judgement	Reliable and reasonable decision-making	Sound judgement is essential for success in leadership roles.

Other Important Judgement Collocations

These judgement collocations enrich your academic writing and show topic flexibility, especially for essays related to ethics, law, or technology.

Collocation	Meaning	Example Sentence
Moral judgement	evaluation of what is right or wrong	Children develop moral judgement as they grow older.
Personal judgement	individual opinion	Your personal judgement can differ from professional advice.
Legal judgement	decision made by a court	The legal judgement favoured the company in the dispute.
Professional judgement	expertise-based decision-making	Doctors must use professional judgement when treating patients.
Human judgement	decisions made based on reasoning and emotions	Artificial intelligence cannot fully replace human judgement.

Notes

Note how we talk about good judgement:
- His decision was based on sound judgement
Note how we express lack of confidence in someone’s judgement:
- Because no WMD have been found, people are calling the PM’s judgement into question.
- I’ve lost thousands in the stock market. It really has destroyed my confidence in the judgement of my financial advisor.
Note these expressions which show a negative influence on our judgement:
- A judge must never allow any personal prejudice to colour his judgement.
- Don’t let your disappointment cloud your judgement.
- The alcohol had impaired the driver’s judgement.
- I mustn’t let my feelings interfere with my professional judgement.
‘The Day of Judgement’ or ‘Judgement Day’ describes the Christian idea that one day our lives will be judged by God.

Judgement Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises

The following exercises are designed to help you with your understanding and use of judgement collocations for IELTS, and you will be able to complete these exercises.

Exercise A: Which set of verbs fit best in the sentences?

a trust / rely on / depend on

b showed / exercised / used

c challenged / doubted / questioned

d use / rely on / exercise

e form / come to

I’m afraid whether to marry Sandra or not is not something I can give you advice on. You’ll have to ___________ your own judgement.
I think recent events have called into question the director’s judgement. = > Be careful. No one has ever ___________ his judgement before.
What do you think we should do about this money that’s missing from the accounts? I’m finding it hard to___________ a judgement on what course of action to take.
I ___________ my wife’s judgement on financial matters. She’s got a degree in economics.
The speaker ___________ good judgement in his choice of words when that guy asked all those difficult questions.

Exercise B: Complete the sentences below with the more natural collocation.

Until I’ve heard your brother’s side of the story, I think I’m going to ___________ judgement. (keep / reserve)
What do you think of our new headmaster? > It’s still too early to ___________ a judgement but so far he seems OK. (form / make)
Mike’s appalling behaviour at the meeting just ___________ my earlier judgement of him. He’s the rudest person I’ve ever met. (confused / confirmed)
Who are you to___________ judgement on my behaviour? Just remember you’re no saint yourself! (make / pass)
I think I’ll___________ your judgement when it comes to deciding which wine to order. You know a lot more about it than me. (trust / believe)
When it comes to trusting people, ___________ your own judgement. Don’t listen to what other people think.(depend on / rely on)

Exercise C: Complete the sentences with the following expressions. Then underline other useful collocations in this exercise.

in my judgement

against my better judgement

a distinct lack of judgement

an error of judgement

As a very experienced politician, the Minister should never have allowed the Sultan to pay for his hotel accommodation. He showed ___________ .
___________ , we should not have accepted Jim’s resignation. He was too valuable a person to lose.
I went to the party ___________ . I should have stayed at home and tried to get rid of this cold.
To say that you were guilty of ___________ when you spoke to the press about the disagreements at the meeting is the under-statement of the year. I think you’ll soon be looking for a new job.

Explore our Vocabulary for IELTS to boost your IELTS vocabulary!

Judgement Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

Ex A: l-d 2-c 3-e 4-a 5-b

Ex B: 1. reserve 2. form 3. confirmed 4. pass 5. trust 6.rely on

Ex C:

a distinct lack of judgement
In my judgement
against my better judgement
an error of judgement

To conclude, understanding and using judgement collocations can make your IELTS responses more precise, mature, and academically natural. Whether you are writing an essay about moral decisions or discussing leadership in the IELTS Speaking test, these expressions demonstrate an advanced grasp of English phrasing, key to achieving Band 8+ in Lexical Resource.

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