Vocabulary, Word Usage, and Terminology
What the exam tests
This domain measures precision. Candidates must distinguish words that are close but not interchangeable, recognize formal register appropriate to the record, and deploy terminology from the courtroom, legal, and medical registers that recur in testimony. Expect questions on affect/effect, imply/infer, comprise/compose, ensure/insure/assure, fewer/less, lay/lie, and continual/continuous. Legal vocabulary includes arraignment, allocution, voir dire, demurrer, deposition, subpoena, and hearsay. Medical vocabulary includes plaintiff-typical terms such as prognosis, etiology, contusion, laceration, and radiculopathy. Idiomatic preposition use ("charged with," "comply with," "prejudicial to") also appears.
Traps to expect
- Sound-alike substitutions that spellcheck will not catch ("council" for "counsel").
- Register errors: slang or casual phrasing in a transcript where formal usage is required.
- Overcorrection: replacing a correct plain word with a fancier one that changes meaning.
- False precision in technical terms, such as confusing a "laceration" with an "incision."
- Idiom errors with prepositions ("different than" versus "different from").
Rule of thumb
When two words seem interchangeable, ask what each one's core meaning is. If you cannot articulate the difference in one sentence, you do not yet know the words well enough to use them in a transcript.
Worked example
"The defendant was charged for assault." The idiomatic preposition is "with": "charged with assault." Similarly, one "complies with" a rule, "objects to" a question, and is "prejudicial to" a party.