That test only went up to 45,000 words, you couldn't have gotten more than that, which is a major problem with it to begin with. xd Using your vocabulary and having it are two different things. If you write just to show off how many difficult words you can fit in, then people will be turned off because not only do they not know them, but even if they did they'll just think you're being arrogant.
You must have both. You need to learn how to use the words you have as well as have many to use. Spelling and grammar in general are key, you might have a lot of words to use, but if you don't spell them properly or have a firm understanding of punctuation, sentence structure (which sentence structure is an artform, not something that's easy to learn), etc, then your large vocabulary is useless.
I practice my grammar at every opportunity and I'm thousands of times more dedicated to writing than any of the best selling authors throughout time itself...I will literally kill and slaughter if it brings me one step closer to achieving my goal. If I'm unsure of how to spell a word, even if I've done it hundreds of times before, then I'll simply copy and paste said word into google to make sure. You can check all my posts here on NB and you won't find very many mistakes. I also take the time to read my posts and fix any mistakes if need be.
I use an online thesaurus to find synonyms for words if I can't think of one that's better; repetition in writing is horrible, don't do it unless there's no other choice. While I'm there I also take the time to read the whole page in the hopes of increasing my vocabulary, but that's the extent of my efforts to do that though it does wonders. I couldn't care less if I don't have a large amount of words to use (though I do), if I went up against someone that just took pride in their vocabulary, more people would read and like my stuff because it's good and understandable, not a pile of rubbish that doesn't make any sense.
