6 Ways to Improve Your Conversation Score

The Conversation subscore measures listening and speaking, two areas that many students struggle with.

If you’re one of those people, you’re in the right place! In this article, you’re going to learn everything you need to know in order to quickly and significantly raise your Conversation subscore, including how you can get unlimited practice on Conversation questions with instant scoring and feedback.

Let’s jump in!

Table of Contents

• Understand the Conversation Subscore
• Top 6 Tips for Conversation Questions
• Conversation Questions on the Duolingo English Test
• How to Practice Conversation Questions

Understand the Conversation Subscore

The Conversation subscore is 1 of the 4 subscores on the Duolingo English Test (DET), so it counts for 25% of your overall score.

Duolingo defines Conversation as, “The ability to listen and speak.” This makes sense. When you’re in a conversation, you need to speak and listen to the other person.

In 2024, the average Conversation subscore was 110.

👉 To see the average on all subscores, check out Global average scores on the Duolingo English Test

Top 6 Tips for Conversation Questions

Make sure your volume is turned up

If you can’t hear the recording, you won’t be able to understand it!

In some question types, you can only listen to the recording one time. For other question types, the recording will play automatically, and you can only replay it twice. Later in this article, we're going to look closely at each Conversation question type.

Listen carefully

Small details in the recordings can be the difference between a mediocre score and a great score. When you’re listening, make sure you really focus.

Speak slowly, clearly, and loudly

When you have to record yourself, it is crucial that you make yourself easy to understand. During the test, you will be stressed, and when we are stressed, we speak more quickly. It’s important that you remember to slow down. It’s also important that you make sure you clearly pronounce each word and to speak loudly. You want to speak more slowly, carefully, and loudly than you would naturally.

You should pretend like you are speaking to an elderly person who can’t hear very well who is sitting across the room 👵 This will help you to slow down, pronounce each syllable, and speak loudly so that your voice is easy to hear in your recording.

Use a good microphone

If your microphone is bad, it will be hard to hear you in your recording and you won’t be able to get a good score.

You can test the quality of your microphone by practicing Conversation questions using Arno. We give you unlimited practice questions for every question type with instant scoring and feedback. It’s also completely free! Just click the link below to start practicing.

Take the test in a quiet place

Background noise will make it harder to hear your voice in your recording.

Don’t stop if you make a mistake

In questions that require you to speak, you will only be able to record yourself 1 time. If you make a mistake, just keep going. It is still possible to get a strong score, even if you make a mistake.

Conversation Questions on the Duolingo English Test

There are 8 question types that count toward your Conversation subscore. Let’s look at each one as well as tips for each of them.

Listen and Type

This question type appears 6 to 9 times on the test.

💡 Tips

1. Pause between listens and ask yourself, What do you think they said? What did you not understand? Were there any words you didn’t recognize?
2. Use the 3 plays of the recording strategically. You should listen to the recording twice. Next, write your response. Then, listen to the recording for the final time. This order ensures you get the most out of each listen.

👉 To learn more about how the Listen and Type question type, check out our article: “Listen and Type” - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question

Speak About the Photo

This question appears just once on the test.

💡 Tips

1. Use the 5 W's strategy to structure your response
2. Study the image carefully. The image you are given is quite small. Be sure to study it carefully to notice all important details.
3. Speak for the entire 90 seconds. This will help you get a higher score.
4. Stay on topic. If your response is not relevant enough to the image, you will lose points.

👉 "Speak About the Photo" - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question

Interactive Speaking

This question was added to the DET on 1 July 2025. You will be asked a 6 to 8 questions that you need to listen to and then respond to. You have 35 seconds for each response.

💡 Tips

1. Don't forget to click "Record Now". Otherwise, your answer won't be recorded!
2. Speak for 30 seconds. That way, your response won't be cut off which will lose you points.
3. Don't think too much about your answer. 35 seconds is not a lot of time, so you don't want to spend valuable time thinking about what to say. Just go with the first idea that pops into your head.
4. Listen carefully to the second part of the question. The person speaking will often start with phrases like Thanks for that information or Interesting, let me ask you another question. The important part of the question—what you need to talk about—comes in the second half.
5. Look for the "big spike" in the audio waveform. As you listen to the question, you will see a picture of the sound (called a waveform). The question you need to answer usually starts with a "big spike" in the sound around the middle of this picture.
6. Use connecting words. This makes your response easy to follow.

👉 Interactive Speaking - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question

Read, Then Speak

This question appears once on the test.

💡 Tips

1. Use the Answer the Questions strategy
2. Read the topic carefully. Make sure you understand all the aspects you need to address.
3. Speak for the entire 90 seconds. If you don’t speak enough, you can’t get a high score.

👉 "Read, Then Speak" - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question (2023)

Speaking Sample

This question appears just 1 time.

💡 Tips

1. Read the topic carefully. It will be quite long with many aspects that you need to address.
2. Use the I LAST strategy
3. Stay on topic. If you talk about something off topic, you will lose points.
4. Speak for the entire 3 minutes. Longer answers generally get higher scores.

👉 Speaking Sample - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question

Interactive Listening

The final two Conversation question types make up the Interactive Listening portion of the test.

Listen and Complete

Each Interactive Listening question set begins with the scenario. Since 1 July 2025, you have to listen to the scenario and answer 3 or 4 questions that test your comprehension of it.

💡 Tips

• Listen to the scenario before answering each Listen and Complete question. That way, you can more easily find the correct answer for each one.
• Don't stress about typos. Duolingo says, “Minor spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors do not matter as long as the errors that you make do not change the meaning.”
• You do not need to write down the answer exactly as you hear it. Duolingo says, “You can paraphrase the answer. Some questions might even require you to paraphrase.”
• There is a limit to how much you can write. Your answers will likely be less than 5 words but almost never more than 10.
• Don't spend more than 2.5 minutes on answering the Listen and Complete questions. You want to have at least 4 minutes for the Listen and Respond questions.

Listen and Respond

This question type appears 5 times and they’re all part of one “conversation.” You have to listen to what the other person says and then pick the correct response 5 times.

💡 Tips

1. Choose your answers carefully. There are usually multiple options that seem correct. Duolingo is trying to trick you into picking an incorrect answer.
2. Listen carefully. You can only listen to each audio clip one time.
3. Read the correct answer. This allows you to still understand the conversation even if you pick the wrong response.
4. Before clicking “Next” at the end of the conversation, reread the scenario and conversation. This will help you with the next question.

👉 "Interactive Listening" - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question (2023)

Summarize the Conversation

After the conversation is over, you are asked to summarize it.

Although this question is part of the Interactive Listening section, it actually doesn’t require you to listen. At the end of the conversation you can read through what the other person said and the correct responses. This is a super helpful trick to make sure you can get a great score on this question!

💡 Tips

1. Use our popular template for Summarize the Conversation
2. Save approximately 20 seconds to proofread your response. Look for obvious errors like typos and misspellings.

👉 "Interactive Listening" - Guide to Duolingo English Test Question (2023)

How to Practice Conversation Questions

Arno is the best way to practice Conversation questions (and every question type on the Duolingo English Test!)

We give you instant score estimates and feedback on your vocabulary and grammar — even on speaking questions! Our users tell us all the time that it’s amazing 🤩

Arno will even explain your grammar mistakes so that you can understand why something is incorrect.

The best part is that Arno is completely free! Just click below to start increasing your Conversation subscore.