Duolingo English Test: Take Test from Home! Did you know all the universities (US, Canada, UK) now accepting Duolingo test? It's easy, cheaper and quick! Learn more...

Duolingo English Test: Take Test from Home! Did you know all the universities (US, Canada, UK) now accepting Duolingo test? It's easy, cheaper and quick! Learn more...

ABOUT THE TEST:

Duolingo—also known as the creators of the app that teaches you foreign languages—has launched an English exam. Hence, amidst the crisis of Novel Corona Virus and the uncertain cancellations of other popular standardized English Language Test the great news for the aspiring international students is that the test can be taken at home anytime, it only costs $49— and is accepted by over 1000 institutions.

 

Test at a glance:

Test duration:

45 minutes+ 10 minutes ungraded interview

Result:

2 days

Acceptance:

Accepted by over 1000 institutions

Exam fee:

$49

Test Requirements

60 minutes of free-time Stable internet connection

A computer (supporting browser)

Front facing camera, microphone or speakers

Proof of ID:

Passport, driver’s license or government ID

 

 

What Is the Duolingo English Test (DET)?

 

The Duolingo English Test is an online exam that you take on your personal computer. Like the TOEFL and IELTS, it tests all four language skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. However, the test has been designed with some fun and interesting revolutionary ways of assessing the skills.

The Duolingo English Test is a measure of English language proficiency. The test has been made to deliver maximum accessibility and efficiency; it is delivered via the internet, without a testing center, and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hence, with the growing demand of technology driven and friendly tools and methods in education Duolingo truly has started to appear as the strong contender for ESL candidates. The fact that the test takes less than an hour to complete the entire process of completing the test from on boarding, setup, test administration as well as uploading makes it more appealing to the generation that is always time deprived and love the idea of anything that can save their precious time an effort. It is a Computer-adaptive test (CAT). The test has been designed to provide maximum comfort and ease to the test takers and has focused on being user-friendly; the onboarding, user interference, and item format is convenient to interact.

 

The test has also been designed to be adaptive, which can potentially cause major consequences for test-takers. Basically, if the test taker happens to answer the question correctly, the next question tends to get more difficult. However, with the wrong answer the following questions tend to get easier. This implies that, within few questions, the exam is structured to detect the proficiency of the test taker and also explains the reason why the test is much shorter in comparison to other ESL tests.

Test components:

The test includes:

  • Listening to spoken words and selecting the real ones
  • Reviewing written words and selecting the real ones
  • Completing missing letters from a text
  • Describing an image in writing or aloud
  • Recording yourself saying a written sentence
  • Verbally answering a spoken question

 

 

In addition to the above items, Duolingo includes a “video interview” section of the exam, in which you speak for 1-3 minutes on a topic you choose (they offer two). This is ungraded, but goes along with your test results to universities—which can be a great addition to your application!

 

 

Test format in more detail:

 

The Duolingo English Test is a modern language proficiency tool designed for today's international students and institutions. It offers an English proficiency score, video interview,  and writing sample in an accessible, efficient, and secure testing experience.

The test can be broken down into three sections:

 

    1. Quick Setup – 10 minutes

This includes an introduction that breaks down the rules and requirements put in place by Duolingo (not graded).

    1. Adaptive Questions – 25 minutes

This is the bulk of the test -- the graded section where the test takers demonstrate their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and it is tested.

 

About the Adaptive Questions – Part 1

 

These question types can appear in any order and could get easier or harder based on the previous answers being correct or incorrect.

 

Question type:

Listening question types:

Time to answer:

1 minutes

Test format:

The test takers will hear a short English sentence and will asked to transcribe what is heard into a text box. If you don’t hear the phrase well enough the first time, you will be able to replay it up to 2 times.

Assessment:

Listening and writing skills

Tips:

Use the replay option smartly. Write as much as you can remember as you listen. Then, use your replays to check your transcription, especially the ones you are unsure about.
 

Question type:

C-Test Item Questions (Fill-in missing letters questions)

Time to answer:

3 minutes

Test format:

For this question you will see a short excerpt. The excerpt’s first sentence is complete but thereafter, you will see words with missing letters. Your task will be to fill in the missing letters in a way it makes sense

Assessment:

English syntax through vocabulary spelling recognition

Tips:

Skip the ones you don’t know and come back.

 

 

Question type:

Vocabulary Selection Question (Written)

Time to answer:

1 minute

Test format:

You will be presented with the list of English words and pseudo words. Your task will be to click on the words that are real English words while leaving the pseudo words.

Assessment:

English vocabulary knowledge

Tips:

Trust your gut and don’t get trapped. A lot of the fake words are clearly convincing.

 

 

Question type:

Vocabulary Selection Question (Audio)

Time to answer:

90 seconds

Test format:

You will see nine buttons to play, nine different “words”- some of which are real English words and some are not. Your task is to identify the real ones.

Assessment:

English vocabulary knowledge and listening skills

Tips:

Trust your gut and don’t get trapped. A lot of the fake words are clearly convincing.

 

 

Question type:

Reading and Speaking Item

Time to answer:

20 seconds

Test format:

For this type of question, you will see a statement in quotes with a “Record Now” button at the bottom of the screen. You will have 20 seconds to read the statement, click “Record” and speak the written sentence out aloud.

Assessment:

English reading, speaking, pronunciation skills, and word stress

Tips to prepare:

Practice reading in English out loud. You can even record yourself and make corrections.
 

 

 

Question type:

Image Identification Question

Time to answer:

3 seconds

Test format:

You get 3 seconds to look at an image and respond what it is into the microphone. It might be an animal or an object( they tend to be one word responses)

Assessment:

Speaking skills (pronunciation, stress and intonation of English words)

Tips to prepare:

Don’t stress too much about these questions, but do pay attention when they come up. These questions aren’t necessarily difficult but fast.

 

 

Question type:

Short Writing Response

Time to answer:

60 seconds per image

Test format:

You will be asked to write a few sentences describing an image.

Assessment:

Speaking skills - phonetics (your pronunciation of English words) and prosody (stress and intonation of English words)

Tips to prepare:

If you don’t know the name of something in the image, don’t panic. Using the vocabulary that you know to describe it is a perfectly reasonable route to take when you don’t know a particular word. For example, if you are presented with an accordion and you do not know the name of it, you can describe it as “a box shaped musical

instrument that has a number of piano like keys on either side and needs to be stretched and squeezed together to produce sound.”

 

 

Question type:

Short Writing Response

Time to answer:

60 seconds per image

Test format:

You will be asked to write a few sentences describing an image.

Assessment:

Speaking skills - phonetics (your pronunciation of English words) and prosody (stress and intonation of English words)

Tips to prepare:

If you don’t know the name of something in the image, don’t panic. Using the vocabulary that you know to describe it is a perfectly reasonable route to take when you don’t know a particular word. For example, if you are presented with an accordion and you do not know the name of it, you can describe it as “a box shaped musical instrument that has a number of piano like keys on either side and

needs to be stretched and squeezed together to produce sound.”

 

 

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