9 Common Mistakes Made on the Duolingo English Test
The best way to avoid making mistakes on the Duolingo English Test is to learn the most common mistakes that students make on the test. This article will help you to ensure your test results are certified and that you get the highest score possible.
⭐⭐We also have a video version of this article below⭐⭐
Table of Contents
- Going fast on some questions to save time for other questions
- Going fast to score higher
- Studying "Read and Select" and "Read and Complete" questions too much
- Looking away from the screen
- Not taking the test in a quiet room
- Not taking the test in a bright room
- Not proofreading your responses
- Including irrelevant ideas in your responses
- Not speaking clearly
1. Going fast on some questions to save time for other questions
On the Duolingo English Test every question has its own timer, so going fast on one question does not give you additional time for other questions.
However, there are two exceptions to this rule that you should be aware of!
On "Interactive Listening" and "Interactive Reading" question sets you will have multiple questions with one timer. So, for these questions it might make sense to go faster on easier or shorter questions to save time for harder or longer questions. ⌛ For all other questions, we recommend using ALL the time available to you.
2. Going fast to score higher
Some test takers think that going faster will get them a higher score on the Duolingo English Test because it will show that speaking English is easy for them. This is not correct. The official guide to the Duolingo English Test says:
"Use all of the time that you have available to answer a question. You will not receive a better score for answering questions faster"
Again, we like to remind students to use all the time available to them on test questions.
3. Studying "Read and Select" and "Read and Complete" questions too much
There are tens of thousands of words that could appear on the Duolingo English Test – it would take years to learn all of the words that you could see in these two question types! Spending your time trying to memorize words for these two question types is not an efficient use of time... and impossible!
Your time would be much better spent learning vocabulary that is useful to YOU i.e. vocabulary that comes up in everyday life and that you can use in your writing and speaking.
A better way to boost your English vocabulary is by reading English books and articles and watching English television and movies. Look up any words you don't know. For any words that you find, it can be a great idea to write them down along with their definition and to practice using them in your writing and speaking.
4. Looking away from the screen
Because you take the Duolingo English Test from home, Duolingo has to be very careful about preventing cheating. This means that if you give Duolingo any reason to suspect that you may have cheated, they won't certify your test results and you will have to retake the test. 😞😞😞 Nobody wants to do that but the exam proctors have to be completely confident that you did not cheat or break any Duolingo English Test rules.
The most common reason for which Duolingo won't certify test results is that the test taker looked away from the screen too much. This is a problem for so many people because it's perfectly natural to look around as we are thinking, writing, and speaking. So, as you are practicing for the Duolingo English Test you have to train yourself to keep your eyes on the screen. You might even consider putting a sticker where the webcam is so that you have somewhere to focus your eyes when you are thinking.
Please note that there is one exception to this. For writing questions, you ARE allowed to look down on your keyboard as you type but you have to avoid looking to the sides, up, or too far down. Keep your eyes on your computer the entire time and you will be fine!
5. Not taking the test in a quiet room
Another common reason why Duolingo won't certify your results is that they think you were not alone in the room where you took the test. If the test proctors hear another person's voice – even if that person is in another room – they will suspect that that person was in the room with you and they won't certify your results. As such, you MUST take the test in a quiet (ideally silent) room so you don't give the proctors any reason to believe you were not alone while you took the test.
6. Not taking the test in a bright room
If the room in which you took the test is too dark then it will be harder for the proctors to see you and the rest of the room. This makes it harder for them to be completely confident that you were alone in the room and that you did not use notes etc.
To avoid this, make sure that it is very easy to see your face and your background. 💡💡💡 Ensure that your office space has good lighting 💡💡💡 and, if you can, put a mirror behind you to allow the proctor to see more of the room in the reflection.
7. Not proofreading your responses
You should think of writing as two separate processes:
- Write
- (Then) Edit
When you are writing just get the ideas out of your head and onto the page. Then, when you edit, make sure to fix grammatical mistakes and misspellings alongside adding in any words you missed. Use your editing time to try to improve the language of your response, too, and include more advanced vocabulary.
If you try to write and edit at the same time, you're not going to do either as well as you can and your writing will not be as strong as it can be.
For writing questions we recommend that for each minute of the question you spend 50 seconds writing and 10 seconds editing. So, for a 3 minute writing question you will spend 2 minutes and 30 seconds writing and 30 seconds editing your response.
While you are editing your responses focus on fixing obvious errors like:
- Typos
- Missing words
- Incomplete sentences
These are the mistakes that will lose you the greatest number of points and they're also the mistakes that are easiest to fix.
8. Including irrelevant ideas in your responses
"Task relevance" is one of the criteria that Duolingo uses to evaluate writing responses. "Task relevance" just means: how well you stay on topic.
On writing and speaking questions some test takers will ramble: They will go from one idea to another idea randomly. As a result, there is no main point to the response and no logical connection between your ideas.
For example, you could be asked to talk about your favorite restaurant. Some test takers will say something like "my favorite restaurant is McDonald's, I went there last week and I saw a dog. I like dogs but I like cats more. I used to have a cat." This is a very cute response but the test taker is supposed to be talking about their favorite restaurant... instead they are talking about pets. When you ramble like that you are going to lose a lot of points on your response, unfortunately, so save the updates on Fluffy for your best friend <3
To stay focused on the topic it is very important to have a strategy. To learn some useful strategies check out the video below:
9. Not speaking clearly
One of the criteria examiners use to grade speaking questions on the test is how easy it is to understand you. For this reason, it's crucial that you focus on pronouncing your words clearly.
Speak a little more loudly than you would if you were having a conversation with a person across the table from you because that is going to make it easy for the proctor to hear your voice in the recording. Furthermore, make sure you speak slowly on the test. When we get nervous we tend to speak more quickly, so it's important to remember to relax (easier said than done), slow down, and make sure that you pronounce each word and each syllable well.
⭐For an example of clear pronunciation, see the YouTube videos linked in this article ⭐
At Arno, we recommend that students pretend like they are speaking to an older person in their responses on speaking questions: slow down, speak loudly, and pronounce your words clearly so Duolingo can understand you. 👵👵👵
These tips will help you to ensure your results get certified and you score the highest you possibly can. To start practicing join Arno, for free today and raise your score instantly.
With Arno you get free, unlimited practice questions for every question type on the Duolingo English Test.
After entering your response into Arno like this:
You will get an instant estimated score as well as a breakdown of your vocabulary.
Arno also provides instant feedback on your response, perfect for busy students with places to go and people to see 🍻
Arno will also show you other people's responses for comparison and inspiration.
Arno will even rewrite your response - putting the feedback provided into practice.
Arno can also highlight where you have made a mistake or could improve your writing so that you fix it yourself. This will improve your English very quickly.
So what are you waiting for, click the image below and get started with Arno today :)