How can I get a high score on the Duolingo English Test?
In this article, I'm going to explain what you need to do so that you can get a high score on the DET. I will also give you links to many resources that will be helpful.
Let's jump in!
Table of Contents
- Figure out how much you need to improve
- Learn strategies for each question type
- Practice writing and speaking not comprehension
- Study picture description
- Avoid basic grammar mistakes
- Learn advanced vocabulary
- Learn connecting words
- Learn how to organize your responses
- Speak in the right way
- Read and listen to English
1. Figure out how much you need to improve
If you have already taken the Duolingo English Test, then you know your scores. You know where you did well and where you need to improve.
But if you have not taken the DET, then you can figure out how much you need to improve by taking mock tests. There is the official mock test from Duolingo. It is 45 minutes (the real test is 1 hour). It's great because it's free and you can take it as many times as you like. However, it only gives you an estimated overall score.
This means that you can't see which areas you should focus on. This is why Arno's full mock test is so helpful. First, it's free! Our mock tests are full-length and the questions are just like you will see on the real test. We also gives you detailed scoring and feedback on every one of your responses.
For almost everyone, their lowest score is in Production, which is writing and speaking. Later in the article, I'm going to share a bunch of tips to help you with writing and speaking questions.
2. Learn strategies for each question type
Before you take the test, you should become familiar with every question type. On the test, you should recognize every question and know exactly what to do as soon as you see it. This is especially important because the DET is such a quick test. You don't want to have to spend valuable time reading instructions.
We also have a video that covers the same material:
Once you understand how each question type works, you should learn strategies that will help you to get the highest score.
For that, you should check out the articles on our blog and the videos on our YouTube channel. We provide a ton of resources that will help you get ready for every question type.
3. Practice writing and speaking not comprehension
The lowest subscore on average is by far Production. This measures writing and speaking, so it is no surprise that it is the lowest.
The good news is that it is also easiest to improve your writing and speaking. This is because when we write or speak, we use the same words and structures and over. You can learn some advanced vocabulary and advanced structures that you can use in multiple responses to raise your score.
In contrast, comprehension is much harder to improve quickly. This is because there are so many English words that could appear in questions like Read and Select or Fill in the Blanks that test your comprehension. The probability is low that you memorize a word that you will see in one of these questions.
Also, by working on your writing and speaking, you will also improve your ability to read and listen. In other words, focusing on Production will likely raise your other subscores as well.
The final reason to focus on writing and speaking is that the lower your score, the easier it is to improve. In other words, improving a score from 80 to 90 is much, much easier than improving your score from 120 to 130. This is because Duolingo grades more harshly at higher scores. This is why it is very common for students to quickly improve their scores from 90 to 120 but then get stuck, unable to improve to 130.
In the next tips, we're going to look at how exactly to improve your writing and speaking.
4. Study picture description
Improving at picture description is the easiest way to improve your Production score on the Duolingo English Test. This is because the way we describe pictures naturally does not score highly on the DET. If you learn some specific strategies and vocabulary, you will significantly raise your score immediately.
In addition, there are 4 picture descriptions questions on the test. For 3, you have to write about the photo and for 1, you need to speak about the photo. This means that picture description is a large part of how writing and speaking is evaluated on the DET.
The most important thing to do for picture description is to learn a template or strategy that you can rely on for each question. This will enable you to easily know what to say in your response and ensure that you talk about the right things in order to get a high score.
In one of our most popular videos, I teach you a great template for picture description:
(We also have the same content in a blog post: Simple Template for Write About the Photo.)
Another key aspect of doing well on picture description is to use plenty of advanced vocabulary. We also have a ton of videos about that as well which you can find in our series Score Higher on Picture Description 😁 (click here to access it).
5. Avoid basic grammar mistakes
Basic grammar mistakes lose you a lot of points on the DET. However, they are also easy to avoid. As you are working on your vocabulary, you should focus on eliminating the habit of making basic mistakes.
Basic mistakes include: capitalization issues, spelling mistakes, missing words, and issues related to singular v. plural. These are considered "basic" mistakes because even people with very limited English should be able to avoid them. In the video below, I explain further what these basic mistakes are, including examples:
At Arno, we see that many students try to learn advanced grammatical structures and advanced sentence structures before they have mastered the grammar fundamentals. In effect, they are wasting their time. Even if you use advanced vocabulary and advanced grammatical structures, but your writing and speaking has many of these basic mistakes, it will be impossible to score highly.
Arno's feedback on writing and speaking questions is a great way to make sure you have a solid grasp of these basic grammar concepts. After you submit a response, Arno will identify the grammar mistakes and then allow you to correct them.
6. Learn advanced vocabulary
If you need to get 120 and above, then using advanced vocabulary is a necessity. It will not be enough to simply write clear, grammar-free responses. You also need to use advanced vocabulary (and advanced structures). That said, even if don't need 120, you should still learn advanced vocabulary because it will raise your score.
However, be sure to use advanced vocabulary correctly! This is a very common mistakes among people preparing for the DET. They will learn some advanced vocabulary, but then use it incorrectly. They end up losing points by using that vocabulary, instead of gaining points! 😩
What makes one word better than another word is precision. For example, the word "good" is a word that can be used in many situations. This means that it is a basic word that many people know. It's perfectly fine to describe food as "good." However, a more precise word would be "tasty." This means that describing food as "tasty" instead of "good" on the test will get you more points.
Here's another example. You could say that you had a "good time at the museum" but this would not earn you a lot of points on the DET. It would be better to use a more precise word like "enjoyable" and say: "I had an enjoyable time at the museum."
An easy way to improve your vocabulary is to look at words that you use often. These are words like, "nice," "good," "bad," or "beautiful" and find synonyms that will be better in specific contexts. In the video below, I teach you 10 synonyms for the over-used word "beautiful":
7. Learn connecting words
One kind of advanced vocabulary that you should be sure to study is connecting words. These are words that help you transition from one idea to another. They are words like, "however," "as a result," or "on the other hand."
Connecting words are great because they are not only advanced words (which means you will get more points for "vocabulary") but, they also make your reading easy to follow so they will also help you get more points on the "content" and "discourse coherence" aspects of the test.
Like for advanced vocabulary in general, it is important that you use connecting words correctly. Otherwise, you can really confuse your reader (and therefore lose a lot of points).
8. Learn how to organize your responses
For writing and speaking questions, it is important that you have a clear, neat structure to your responses. You want one idea to logically follow from the previous one. You want to use paragraphs to organize your ideas and topic sentences to begin each paragraph.
Organizing your writing can be difficult to learn, but once you understand it, it will improve your writing so much and significantly raise your score on the DET. (At Arno, we offer one-on-one tutoring that can help you learn how to organize your responses.)
9. Speak in the right way
On the Duolingo English Test, you want to speak differently than you do naturally. You want to speak more slowly and loudly.
You should pretend like you are speaking to an elderly person like your grandfather or grandmother. When we speak with these people, we tend to slow down and speak more loudly so that they can hear us. That is how you want to speak on the DET.
I know that this may sound a little strange, but I promise that it will help you to get a higher score! When we slow down and speak loudly, we pronounce our sounds more carefully. It makes our voice easier to hear in the recording. It also gives us more time to think about what to say. If you are speaking really quickly, it means that you have to think really quickly too! By slowing down your speech, you can relax and think more clearly about what to say next without needing to rush.
10. Read and listen to English
It's important to recognize that preparing for an English test is different than the process to prepare for other tests. On other tests, you can cram and memorize a bunch of information in a short amount of time. To an extent, you can cram for an English test by learning strategies and specific vocabulary that you can use to get a higher score.
However, at a certain point, the only way to raise your score will be by improving your English. That takes time. Learning a language is like preparing for a marathon. You have to train consistently for weeks and months.
You definitely should answer practice questions and take mock tests to get ready for the test. But you should also try to consume English on a daily basis. Thankfully, this is very easy. For example, to listen to more English, just watch American TV shows. Really, watching TV will really help to improve your English! Your comprehension will improve. You will learn new words. You will find that your speaking improves as well!
You should also try to read English on a daily basis. The easiest thing to do is to get your news in English. I recommend the BBC because it's free, high-quality, and they cover so many different topics. You can read about what is interesting to you.
If you watch 1 hour of English-language TV and read English for 30 minutes per day, after even just 1 week, you will notice the difference in your English.
To start practicing for the DET, you should create your Arno account. With a free account, you can practice every question type as much as you like for free. Just click the link below to get started!
