During the pandemic, a sea of students couldn’t go to the centers to take IELTS or TOEFL. However, they still managed to get through the admission process thanks to Duolingo English Test - DET, an online English proficiency test like IELTS and TOEFL.
We will share everything you need to know about DET that we regularly update from the Official Guide for Test Takers. However, we deliver it in a concise way to help you understand it better.
Let’s explore this English proficiency test and how you can get its certificate for your admissions processes.
1. Introduction
DET is an acronym for Duolingo English Test, an English Proficiency Test to prove your English skills to know whether you are eligible to study in English-speaking countries. Sounds familiar?
Yes, IELTS and TOEFL do the same as DET. Students all over the world can take IELTS, TOEFL, or DET to get through admission processes.
The Duolingo English Test is most well-known for its convenience, trusted brand, affordable fee, and fast results.
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Affordable: Pay only $49 to get your English Certificate and share your results with an unlimited number of institutions for no additional cost.
Convenient: You can take the test anytime and anywhere. What you need is a quiet room and a laptop with a stable internet connection.
Fast: Spend 1 hour on your test day and receive your results in less than 48 hours.
Trusted: DET is accepted by almost 4,000 university institutions in over 50 countries across the world, including Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Troy, and so on. You can check all the universities that accept DET on the Duolingo English Test official website.
DET is accepted worldwide because it is Accessible, Accurate, and Secure.
Accessible: The difficulty of the test questions changes based on the test taker’s performance in addition to being available online and on-demand.
Accurate: They use the grading engine to calculate your scores. The engine is trained to understand English ability the same human experts do.
Secure: Thanks to the help of AI, human proctors detect small breaking rules.
2. Get ready for the test
Whatever tests we take, we need to be mentally ready. There are a couple of ways to help you get yourself ready mentally.
a. Improve your general English
Every English Proficiency test has one simple purpose – to test your English skills. Hence, this is your first step to focus on if you want to aim for a high score. Regarding improving your general English, we mean 04 skills, including Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.
There are billions of materials or methodologies to support you in upgrading your skills. Nevertheless, we still build our strategies based on all DET’s question types. So, you will be seeing other articles on how to improve your performance.
b. Learn about the test
Understand the test questions thoroughly and complete the free Practice tests as much as you can, or you can follow our channel Duolingo English Test – TADE Hub on YouTube to keep yourself abreast of up-to-date information.
c. Practice as much as you can
It hinges on your current level and your desired score to know how long you need to practice in order to pursue your dream. Hence, there is a bunch of work you need to do before practicing yourself. Feel free to check this article: A step-by-step strategy to set the right study plan .
You need questions to practice and automatically correcting systems to help you correct your mistakes.
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Fortunately, we have everything you are seeking. You only need to register a FREE account and experience all question types along with our automatically correcting systems, and lots of other technological features to help you achieve your desired score faster.
When you sit for the test, you will need about 1 hour of uninterrupted free time to take it, including:
Introduction and onboarding ~05 minutes
Check your laptop’s camera, speakers, and microphone.
Submit your government-issued photo ID, such as your passport.
Review the test rules and requirements.
Graded computer adaptive test ~50 minutes
Measures your English skills through 11 different question types and Interactive Reading.
Shows you the questions randomly.
Question difficulty changes based on your performance.
Ungraded speaking sample ~ 05 minutes
You need to answer one speaking sample.
Video speaking allows for a 1-3 minute response.
When you share your DET certificate with institutions, they will review your performance through this ungraded question.
You will experience an adaptive and unique test because there is a large pool of questions, and the test changes its difficulty level based on your performance. Therefore, you should not worry if you do any questions poorly. Please be confident, take a deep breath and continue your test.
4. Prepare your environment
a. Set up your space
One of the advantages of the DET is that you can choose your place to sit for the test. There are several guidelines that you should follow on how to make yourself ready for it.
Comfortable: You can sit for the test wherever you feel most comfortable as long as you ensure privacy.
Quiet: There should not be any background noise to interfere while you take the test.
Private: You should inform everyone in the same place when you take the test, and ask them not to disturb you.
Bright: The proctors will check your video recordings of responses, so you need to make sure the room is not too dark.
You can see the above guidelines as rules and follow them strictly to ensure your certified results.
b. Equipment you need
Because DET is an online English proficiency test, you will need to prepare the following equipment to take the test.
Computer: You will need a laptop or computer with a functioning microphone, speakers, and camera, which should be on the top center of your screen.
Valid identification: The test requires a government-issued photo ID such as Passport, so you should prepare your physical ID ready.
Internet connection: A strong internet connection is highly recommended, or at least, you should have 2 Mbps download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed as DET suggests.
c. Purchase the test
It’s simple, you go to the Duolingo English Test homepage and log in to your account. If you don’t have an account, you can create one for free.
Once you have already logged in, you will see something like the below image and click the “BUY NOW” button to purchase your test.
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5. Test security
For the benefit of both test-takers and institutions, Duolingo English Test has researched and developed a series of advanced security measures so that you can share your reliable results with anyone.
a. How does your test stay secure
Secure design: As we already mentioned, the Duolingo English Test has an extremely large pool to provide test questions. It means you need to take over 1,000 tests to see a question repeated.
Remote proctoring: In addition to the help of AI, human proctors will examine every test through video recordings for more than 75 different behaviors in multiple, independent rounds of review.
AI and data forensics: DET collects millions of data points from tests overtime to train security algorithms to help detect rule-breaking and identify patterns of suspicious behavior.
ID verification: With the help of computer vision and AI, trained proctors can verify test takers’ identities.
Test lockdown: The test is canceled immediately if test-takers attempt to use external applications, extensions, or plugins during the test.
Video sample: Institutions can review a short video sample from each test taker’s test session.
b. Rules to know and follow
You must be alone in a quiet, well-lit room. You cannot communicate with another person at any point during the test.
Explanation: Test proctors need to make sure that you are not receiving help from any other person. They will also need to hear your responses very clearly.
Your ears must be visible and uncovered. You cannot use headphones or earphones.
Explanation: The human proctors need to be sure that the only sound you hear while taking the test is coming from the test itself.
Your face must be visible and unobscured.
Explanation: This helps confirm your identity and make sure you are the person completing every response.
No outside materials are allowed, including mobile devices, notes, or textbooks.
Explanation: Just like in a testing center, you will only apply your knowledge and skills to answer the questions.
No writing utensils or paper. No note-taking.
Explanation: Unlike a test center, where paper notes can be disposed of safely, the Duolingo English Test is virtual. The test is designed so that you will not need to take notes.
Do not leave the test window on your app for any reason. Do not look away from the screen.
Explanation: You should always look at the screen, not any outside sources.
*Note: What will happen if rules are broken?
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Likes other English proficiency tests; you will not be certified if you break any rules without receiving a refund. Besides, they may invalidate your previously certified results or ban you permanently depending on the severity of the violation. Thus, you should be following the rules strictly.
A ton of test-takers said that they followed all the rules, but they got uncertified. In this case, we strongly suggest you read the message “Your test could not be certified” that DET sent to your email again. They told you the reasons why your test could not be certified, so please read the message carefully and thoroughly this time and reflect on your test day to avoid similar rule-breaking.
We took the test ourselves, and our members took hundreds of tests that we conclude, “You should review the message from the Duolingo English Test carefully to avoid similar mistakes from happening next time you take the test”.
We share thousands of practice questions and instant feedback for your Speaking and Writing answers. Specifically, we evaluate your answers and offer feedback based on Fluency, Grammatical accuracy, Lexical sophistication, Lexical diversity, and Acoustic features (Pronunciation, Pace, Intonation).
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Go to our DET Practice Platform, create your FREE account, and start boosting your scores today.
