The 5 Extended Writing & Speaking Questions on the Duolingo English Test

This article provides a brief overview of the extended writing and speaking questions on the DET. In these questions, you are given a prompt or prompts that you need to respond to, and they all appear just once on the test.

Thankfully, Duolingo uses the same topics and scoring criteria for all 5 of these questions. That means you can prepare for them all together. All that you need to practice is how much you write or speak. For questions where you are given more time, you will need more ideas and details than you will be able to include on shorter questions.

1. Read, Then Speak

You will be given a written prompt and 20 seconds to prepare your response. Then, you have 90 seconds to speak your response.

2. Interactive Writing

This question consists of two parts. In part A, you are given a prompt and 30 seconds to prepare. Then, you have 5 minutes to write a response. In part B, you will be given a follow-up prompt about the same topic and 3 minutes to write a response. For part B, you won't be given any additional time to plan your response.

3. Interactive Speaking

This question type is like an interview. You will be asked a series of 6 to 8 questions that you have to listen to. After each question, you will have 35 seconds to respond. You are not given any time to prepare your responses.

Because this question type is so different from the others, we have an entire section about it, which is next.

4. Writing Sample

The Writing Sample is identical to part A of Interactive Writing. You are given a written prompt, 30 seconds to prepare your response, and 5 minutes to write your response.

The Writing Sample is special because your response will be sent along with your scores. This allows universities and other institutions to evaluate your writing for themselves. The Writing Sample is also graded.

5. Speaking Sample

In the Speaking Sample, you will be given a written prompt, 30 seconds prepare, and 3 minutes to speak your response.

Like the Writing Sample, the Speaking Sample is graded and it is sent along with your scores.

Summary

Here is a table that summarizes the key info about each question type we looked at: