Taking Duolingo English Test
Hi peeps! Today I would like to share my experiences taking the Duolingo English Test. For those of you who’re still wondering what Duolingo English Test is, DET is one of the proficiency tests that is already recognized by many higher educational institutions all over the world. It cost only 49$ USD which is way cheaper compared to other English Proficiency Test such as IELTS and TOEFL. I decided to take the DET in order to fulfill the requirements of IIVOSMA (scholarship for student exchange).
My first impression of this test was difficult. Indeed, after I took the test, it was really challenging in certain parts. Before I took the test, I definitely practiced many times, but still ended up with a desired score. They provide practice tests for about 15 minutes. The type of questions that appear are the same as the real test questions. However, it’s easier than the real test. Sometimes, The Duolingo teams conduct research and will provide a one hour practice test to gather the data. Other than that, you do not need to worry since there are several platforms and sources that you can use for practice. You can practice on Youtube by watching videos on Teacher Luke channel. Also, there are platforms called DETReady and Hedwig Education.
For the structure of the test, there are several types of questions that will appear randomly. I’m going to explain it in general. The first type is describing pictures. There are few pictures that will appear and you need to describe them orally and in writing. You need to write at least a sentence in one minutes. Then also describe the picture longer in five minutes. The mandatory rule is that you need to write at least 50 words, but I made my own rules to write more than 120 words. However, one stupid thing happened when I was taking the test was that I didn’t know the English word of “terowongan”. Therefore I wasn’t able to explain the picture well. Next is choosing the real English words. In this section, there will be listen and pick & read and pick. You will be hearing several words then you need to pick which are the real English words. You have to be careful in choosing because there are a lot of vocabularies that are misleading with similar pronunciation and my suggestion is DO NOT GUESS at all. The third is to fill in the blank words. There will be a paragraph with incomplete words, and you must fill them correctly according to the context. I suggest you to read the full paragraph once, pay attention to the last sentence, and use American spelling. I used these methods to know the context. The last is that to listen and speak, you need to listen to the prompt 3 times and speak directly. From my point of view, this is the most challenging question. For more detail, I will attach the link that I used to use to practice from Nadi!
From my perspective there are advantages and disadvantages in taking the DET. The disadvantage is that DET is pretty sensitive, so you need a quiet room to take the test, no one can enter your room and talk. There will be a failed possibility and you have to take the test again to get your certificate. Furthermore, DET also requires a proper laptop, check your camera and microphone before taking the test. Last but not least, you need to make sure that you turn off notifications and there is no other tab opened while taking the test.
THIS IS HOW TO SOLVE: click CTRL+SHIFT+ESC then maneuver to the STARTUP tab, disable applications you know but don’t need. Go back to the PROCESSES menu, end task ALL BROWSER, applications you know (WhatsApp, Telegram, Office, etc.) Remember, don’t end task applications that you don’t recognize, otherwise the system will crash.
Let’s jump to the advantage. The first and foremost is that it is obviously effective and flexible! You can take the test anywhere and anytime as long as you have a good internet connection. The second benefit is as I mentioned earlier, it is way cheaper than any English Proficiency Test. That’s all about my experiences taking the Duolingo English Test. I hope it helps!!! Good luck for y’all!!!
This is the link from Nadi: https://bit.ly/DET-Tips-by-Nadi
For those who are curious regarding how the certificate looks like, this is mine:
