Hi and welcome to video two of this four part series where I'm sharing key tips and strategies to help you to ace the most challenging questions on the Duolingo English Test. I'm Teacher Luke, an expert DET teacher, and in this lesson, we're going to focus on Interactive Writing, which looks like this on the exam. I'm going to share with you three super tips to help you to ace this tricky question.
So let's just get right to it. Before we dive into these tips, let's just quickly review what the Interactive Writing question type involves. This is actually quite a unique question.
So how does it work? Interactive writing has two parts. First, you'll see a question prompt and you have five minutes to write your response.
Then after those five minutes, you'll get a follow up question and you'll have three minutes to respond to that while you're answering the follow up question, you can still see your original first response, which you can use to guide you however, you are not able to go back and change or edit your first response. So as you can probably tell, when it comes to interactive writing on the Duolingo English test, it can be easy to feel a bit stressed out, but no need to worry, because today's video will help you feel a lot more confident, and I'll show you how to turn your ok answers into great ones with my three Super tips for improving your writing. Now, although we'll focus mainly on the interactive writing questions today, you can still use these tips for the writing sample question.
This one here, and you can also use these in your general English writing. So these tips will be really helpful for you. So let's just jump right into tip number one, remember your structure.
Structure is how you organize your answer. What should you write, first, second and so on. And of course, this is critical for scoring.
Well, as you can see here in the scoring criteria, specifically this point right here, discourse, coherence, it doesn't matter if you use the most advanced vocabulary or write with perfect grammar without a clear structure, your score will suffer because your ideas won't seem logical or coherent. Think of it like building a house. You wouldn't start with the roof, right?
You need to have the foundation, the walls, and then the roof or the whole thing will collapse, and the same goes for your writing. So let's break down a simple three part structure you can use for any interactive writing question, topic sentence, start by clearly stating your opinion or stance. For example, if the question asks whether you agree or disagree with something, you could say, I completely agree with the statement that or I strongly disagree with.
The idea that this makes your position clear from the start and is a good way to begin your answer. There are lots of phrases you can use to begin your answer, and here are 10 more phrases you could use. You can get this PDF by clicking the link below.
Let's see how you can use them in a full sentence. This is a real Duolingo English test question, and will use this question throughout this video. People are never satisfied with what they have.
They always want something more or different. Do you agree or disagree? Why give specific reasons for your answer?
And a sample topic sentence could go like this, I am in complete agreement with the idea that people are never satisfied with what they have, as I believe it is human nature to always seek more. Now, after you have written your topic sentence, you should move on to the main part of your answer. This can be called the body or the main ideas.
Since you only have five and three minutes to write your answers, you are not expected to write down lots and lots of ideas. Instead, I suggest thinking of one or two main ideas that are related to the question and support your topic sentence. Then you should develop your ideas with explanations examples or even writing about your personal experiences.
For instance, you could say a strong example of this can be seen in or, I believe this because, and here are a bunch more phrases you can use again, let's see these in a full sentence based on the earlier Duolingo test question. Firstly, people often want more because they tend to compare. Themselves to others.
For instance, even if someone has a good job and a nice home, seeing others with higher paying jobs or more expensive possessions can make them feel dissatisfied and want more. Another reason people are rarely satisfied is that achieving one goal often leads to setting higher goals. Personally, after I bought my first car, I was happy at first, but soon after, I wanted a more expensive model, which shows how quickly satisfaction fades.
Okay. Now moving on to the last part of your answer, which is, of course, your concluding sentence you should try to wrap things up with a short concluding sentence that restates your main point but uses different words. For example, you might say, in summary, it's clear that this reinforces your position and shows off your vocabulary.
And here is an example in a full sentence. In conclusion, people naturally want more because they are always looking to improve and reach new goals, which makes it hard to ever feel fully satisfied. Okay.
Moving on to tip number two, use higher level vocabulary on interactive writing. It's helpful to step up your vocabulary from using everyday words to more academic ones, and if your test is coming soon, a quick way to level up your vocabulary is by swapping out basic words for more advanced ones with similar meanings. For example, instead of saying important, try crucial, significant or vital.
Instead of problem, you could say challenge, issue or obstacle. And for phrases like I think, you could say, in my opinion, or it could be argued that using more advanced words will help demonstrate your lexical diversity and lexical sophistication, which, as you can see right here, are on the scoring criteria. Here's a bunch more words you can use.
And just a reminder, you can get this PDF by clicking the link in the video description. Okay. Moving on to tip number three, manage your time.
So this one is a very important one for all of the questions on the Duolingo English test, but especially for interactive writing, you shouldn't forget that you only have a short amount of time to write your answer, so every second counts. It is very easy to get caught up trying to make everything perfect and then simply running out of time. That's bad, so don't let that happen to you.
So here are three steps to help you stay on track. Step one, during the preparation, you'll have time to read the question before you begin writing. So quickly, come up with one or two main ideas and mentally organize them using the structure we discussed.
Remember, you are not allowed to use a pen or paper during this exam, so keep your plan and your ideas in your head. Step two, when writing, I don't recommend writing for the full five minutes. Instead, aim to stop a bit early and leave about a minute to go back and proofread your answer.
Catching and fixing small mistakes can instantly boost your score. And in my opinion, it's a lot better than using your remaining seconds to write one more sentence, step three for the follow up question, apply the same strategy here, write for about two and a half minutes and then spend the remaining time double checking your answer to make sure it's looking good. Now that we've talked about strategies for structuring your answers and improving your vocabulary, let's talk about your mindset.
A strong mindset can make a big difference on test day. So here are a few tips to help you stay calm, focused and confident during your Duolingo English test. Don't try to over complicate your sentences or answers, just to sound more advanced, clear and simple sentences are much better than long ones full of mistakes, so focus on what you know and aim for clear communication.
Before you take the test, make sure you're fully prepared by practicing often and learning different strategies. I teach a lot of strategies in my videos, so go through as many as you can, watch them and learn about the different ways to answer the questions on the Duolingo English test. Stay grounded.
Of course, it's normal to feel pressure or stressed out during any test, but try to stay calm, because this will help you think more clearly. Trust your preparation and approach each question confidently. If you feel nervous, try to ground yourself physically, take a sip of water, have a deep breath, hold onto your seat, anything to gather your thoughts and relax.
These small actions will help you to stay focused and steady during the test. And there you have it. By focusing on structure, vocabulary and time management, you'll be well on your way to improving your score on the interactive writing question on the Duolingo English test.
Now I recommend you watch this video right here, because it will help you with another tricky question on the exam. It's called listen then speak, and it is a tricky one. So this video will be helpful.
I'll see you here right now. You.
