Master the New Duolingo English Test (DET) with Upgraded Question Types (April 2024 Update)

There are three parts of the exam.  

1.  In the first section you’ll get an introduction to the exam, its platform and technical checks.
2. Your English proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking will be assessed in the adaptive test section. The duration of this section is 45 minutes.
3. In the writing and speaking section, you'll get a prompt (image or text form). You will be asked to write and speak about it. Duration of this section is 10 minutes.

The Duolingo English Test has two parts. The first one is a 45-minute adaptive test in which series of questions appear that evaluate one's English skills. The other part consists of a 10-minute Writing and Speaking test that has open-ended prompts. These along with one's scores are shared with institutions. The first 5 minutes is an introduction in which the test takers are made familiar with the test rules and requirements. DET is conducted online and is an English proficiency test which analyses one's abilities in the four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Those who wish to appear for Duolingo English Test should make it a habit to make use of correct grammar, punctuation, right spelling, and capitalization. Both British and American spellings are accepted for the test. But in the Read and Complete question type, only American spelling can be used. Test takers should use different word choice and sentence structure as much as they can. If you want to score better, utilizing assorted and polished vocabulary and grammar may help you with the puspose.

The major difference between the Duolingo English Test and other English proficiency exams is DET uses an adaptive algorithm that adjusts the difficulty of questions based on your performance. Here, you will not face the same question even if you appeared for the test multiple times. Traditional English proficiency exams like IELTS, TOEFL, and PTE Academic use a fixed format, where all test-takers receive the same questions in the same order.

Unlike other exams, the format of DET test is shorter and students can take this online only

As mentioned earlier, DET will measure your hold in the domains such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Adaptive Test: The first part, i.e., the Adaptive Test will be of 45 minutes duration and your English skills will be tested with the help of different types of questions which are administered randomly. Also, the difficulty level of these questions will change on the basis of how you’re performing.

Writing and Speaking Samples: The second part is the Writing and Speaking Samples, the duration of which will be 10 minutes. A prompt will be provided and candidates will have to give a good length response to it. For the speaking part, you will be able to record your response for a maximum of three minutes (minimum 1 minute), and for the writing sample, a 3-5 minute long response has to be recorded.

In DET, similar question types won’t be clubbed together and after every question, a different one will appear which the candidate will be unaware of. There will be questions with difficult levels more or less than the previous ones. The probability of getting the same question more than once is highly unlikely irrespective of the number of times you attempt DET.