Maximize Your Duolingo English Test Score – Study Plan!

Hi friends! In this video, we're going to talk about how you can prepare for the Duolingo English Test in just 30 days, I'm going to give you seven useful tips or strategies to help you prepare quickly for this exam. So if you're taking the exam soon, this video is gonna be very helpful for you.

We will jump into tip number one in just a second. But I want to say if you're new to this channel Hi, I'm Teacher Luke from DETReady. com Our website has lots of tools and information to help you prepare for the Duolingo English test.

So if you need to study more, I recommend visiting our website, there is a link below in the description. And tip number one then is to learn the structure of the test. So the first thing you should do if you only have 30 days to prepare for the exam is to learn the structure of the test.

Because the Duolingo English test is a bit different than the other exams like the TOEFL or IELTS is different in a few key ways. Firstly, it's a mixed skills test. So all of the questions are in one section.

They are not separated by skills like on the IELTS and TOEFL should know is that the Duolingo test is an adaptive test, which means that the questions are tailored to your level as you go through the test. So for example, if you keep doing well, then the questions will get harder and harder. So that's important to know, if you notice that your questions are getting more and more difficult, then maybe that's a good thing.

Maybe you're doing well on the test. The next thing you should do if you only have 30 days is to learn some methods. Now for some of the different questions on this exam, there's not really a method or a strategy you can use to improve your score, like on the vocabulary ones, you either know the answer or you don't.

So the best thing to do is just to improve your English or in this case, improve your vocabulary. But for some of the other questions, there is a method or strategy you can use, which can help you to do better on those questions. And if you only have 30 days to prepare, I recommend you practice these methods.

Let me give you an example. Here we'll talk about a simple structure or method you can use for writing about a photo. For this question type, you have one minute to describe the photo in at least one sentence, but I recommend you try to write more than one sentence.

So here's a simple structure you can memorize sentence number one, you give a general overview of the photograph. For example, this picture shows two young women holding hands in a green field. Sentence two, you can talk about who is doing what or what is where you can go into more detail here.

The woman on the right is taking a photo with her camera and laughing loudly. And sentence three, if you have enough time, you can speculate something like they must be best friends. As you could see here, learning a method or a structure for answering this type of question will be greatly beneficial on the exam.

Because you'll know how to structure your answer even before you've seen the photographs, then you can concentrate solely on what is in the photo practice every day. So the point here is that you want to be able to apply the methods I've just taught you into your answers easily and quickly. When you take the test, you don't want to be using a method for the first time.

Instead, you want to have already done it hundreds of times, so you know how to do it exactly. This will save you valuable minutes when you take the exam. So how can you practice?

Well, there are two ways on the Duolingo English test, you can take an official practice test, which gives you a score at the end. That's great. Another way to practice is to use the practice platform I've made on my website.

Here, you can practice all of different question types lots and lots of times, and you can check your answers immediately. I think this is probably one of the best ways to prepare for this exam. There is a free and a paid version, you can find a link to it below in the description.

Tip number four is to understand the scoring criteria. So this tip is really important for the speaking and writing questions. So the production sub score.

If you want to get a good score in production, I highly recommend you look at this scoring criteria. So let's take a look together. So this is the scoring criteria for the speaking and writing questions.

Like I mentioned. The first two are all about grammar. Point three and four are about your vocabulary.

Point five is about task relevance. So the quality of your answer six is your fluency in writing and speaking. And number seven is about your pronunciation.

This of course is only for the speaking questions. So understanding the criteria here is really important because now you know what you need to do to get a good score. Let's take a look at those first two points.

Again, the ones about grammar is talking about grammatical accuracy. So how correct is your grammar and the grammatical complexity? Do you use a range of simple and complex sentences?

So you're watching this video in English so I can assume that your English is pretty good. So your simple sentences are probably great, but I see a lot of students making mistakes or completely avoiding complex sentences. But if you want to get a good score, you need to use them well.

So let me show you some quick examples here. So what is a complex sentence? Well, a complex sentence is basically LinkedIn two ideas or two Simple sentences together when making a complex sentence, you want to use one of these subordinating conjunctions.

That's a fancy word for these words here on the screen. Basically, they link ideas together. So for example, let's say you have these two ideas.

Many students like playing sports, other students prefer making art. Now these are two simple sentences, but you want to make him complex. So you would use one of these subordinating conjunctions.

These two simple ideas show a contrast. And these subordinating conjunctions are used to show contrast, we need to use one of these subordinating clauses to link these ideas together. Although many students like playing sports, other students prefer making art.

a subordinating conjunction is although and it shows a contrast between my two ideas. Notice here I did use a comma. So when you're using a subordinating conjunction at the start of your sentence, you need to use a comma before your second idea.

You could also put the subordinating conjunction in the middle of the sentence like this, many students like playing sports, whereas other students prefer making art. If you put this subordinating conjunction in the middle of the sentence, you do not need to use a comma. So that's what a complex sentences you basically link two ideas together using a subordinating conjunction.

There are other types of complex sentences as well, such as compound sentences. I've made videos on that in the past, go and check my old YouTube videos, but for today, you need to remember that you need to include at least one of these in each of your speaking and writing answers if you want to get a good score and production. So if you only have 30 days to prepare for this exam, I recommend you study this carefully.

Tip number five is to improve your vocabulary. Of course, improving your vocabulary is so important to improve your English and get a good test score. But it's especially important for the Duolingo test because the Duolingo exam has two question types, specifically related to vocabulary.

We have to read and select and then the listen and select these question types test your vocabulary directly, which is unlike the other exams like the IELTS and TOEFL. So for the Duolingo English test, you need to learn new vocabulary you need to learn how they are spelt and how they are pronounced. Of course, learning the pronunciation will help you with the listen and select question.

So how can you learn new words easily? Well, unfortunately, there's not really a simple solution to this. Reading is probably the best way and taking notes of any new word you see, after you've written down in your notepad.

Go on to an online dictionary and listen to how it's pronounced that will help you improve your listening and your speaking. Another way is to test yourself by using Word Lists. The Oxford Learner's Dictionary has lots of word lists you can use at different levels to test yourself.

So just go through each one and see how many you know at each level. Again, this can be found at Oxford learner's dictionary. com It's a fantastic resource to improve your vocabulary.

Next tip is to improve your typing speed. Now on the Duolingo English test, you do have to type quite quickly for the writing questions for the describe a photo one, you only have one minute to write at least one sentence, but you should at least write two in my opinion. And then in the other writing question, you have to write at least 50 words in five minutes.

But again, you should try to write more. So if you're quite slow at typing, then this could hurt your potential to get a good score. Because you can't write in a great website I use a lot to improve my typing speed is called 10.

Fast fingers. com. On this website, you can improve your typing speed by competing with yourself or against others by typing out all of the words that they give you.

It's a fun way to improve your typing speed. And the last step is to know the score you need to get not every university or institution wants the same score. So it's important to know what score you're aiming for before you take the exam.

You can find this by going to the Duolingo test website. When you go to the Duolingo test website, click on institutions who accepts the test. And here you can type the name of your university.

For example, if you want to go to Warwick University in the United Kingdom, click on the link and then you can see the requirements you need to get into this university. So an overall score of 115 with no less than 90 in each of the sub scores. So those were seven tips to help you study.

I recommend you now watch this video here to practice all the questions and see some sample answers. I hope this was helpful. Thank you very much and see you soon.

Bye. Bye friends. Today we're going to talk about seven really useful ways you can study for the Duolingo English test.

Now as you know, the Duolingo English test is a bit different than other exams. Seems like the IELTS or TOEFL. So the way you study for it might be a little bit different.

And that's what we're going to talk about today. But before I do that, if you're new to my channel Hi, I'm Luke, an expert at Duolingo, English test teacher from di t ready. com.

Head over to that website to get more information, courses and other useful materials to help you study for the Duolingo English test. Okay, point number one is to know the structure. So besides actually improving your English, the next best thing you can do to prepare for this exam is to get used to the structure.

The Duolingo English test is quite different than the other traditional exams like the IELTS and TOEFL in a few key ways. Firstly, the time limit you get for each of the questions is significantly shorter, particularly when it comes to writing. For the right about an image question.

You only have one minute, and then for the longer respond to a prompt question. You'll get five minutes to do that. This is much shorter than the writing questions on the IELTS and TOEFL exams.

The next big difference is that the Duolingo English test is a mixed skills test. That means that the reading, writing speaking and listening questions are all combined together. This is quite different than the IELTS or TOEFL exams, where you have a reading section, a writing section, a listening section, and a speaking section on the Duolingo English test.

Each question type actually tests usually two skills. And those skills are names differently as well. We have literacy, conversation, comprehension, and production.

This is actually quite different than the other exams. But in my opinion, as an English language teacher, I think those subscores actually represent your skills in a much better way. But anyway, for you, the main point is that you get used to this format, because it's quite different than the other exams.

So how can you get used to it? Well, luckily, on the Duolingo test website, there is a practice test. So just head over to the official sites, and you can take a practice test, this is the best way to get used to the format.

And at the end, they give you an estimated score, which is super helpful to let you know if you're ready to take the test or not. So I recommend you take the test every single day as many times as you can just to get used to the format. I've also made full practice tests here on YouTube.

So you can watch those videos as well. My next point is to strategize. So to do well on the Duolingo English test, or, in fact, any test in your life, you need to be able to strategize.

Firstly, you need to think to yourself, What are my strengths and weaknesses. And particularly, you need to be honest with your weaknesses. And of course, spend more time trying to improve that area.

So for example, if you think your weakness is in writing, then you should be spending the majority of your study time dedicated to improving your writing. If it's vocabulary, then you should be improving your vocabulary every single day. So the first way to strategize is to realize what am I good at?

And what do I need to improve the most. The second way to strategize is to know exactly what score is required of you. Universities normally require one of these three things.

First, a good overall score, normally around 100, to 110. But some do want an overall score of 120 to a good overall score plus a good score in production, again, somewhere around that 110 mark. And thirdly, a good overall score and a good score in each of the sub scores.

So for example, 110, overall, plus over 100, in each of the sub scores, it's really important that you know, what is required of you, because you can tailor your studies to hit that requirements. So how can you find out? Well, let me show you.

So the first thing you do is go over to the Duolingo test website, and then go up to institutions, and then who accepts the test. I think this is an incredibly useful feature that that Yulin NGO team has provided for us, it saves us so much time, because you can just type in the name of the university in this search bar. So for example, let's say you want to go to the UK where I'm from, and you might want to go to Bath University, which is a beautiful place, and it should take you to the University's English language requirements page.

The language requirement for Bath University is 120 overall. So that's how it's done. It's really easy to go and find out and it's vital that you know exactly what score you need before you take the test, particularly if you need to get a good score in production.

And my study point number three will help you with that. Study. Point number three is to take some courses to help you improve your score, particularly your production score, because that's the area most students struggle with.

And I have made some production courses so I'm just going to talk about those very quickly here. So far. I've made two writing courses one for the right about a topic and one for the right about a picture I am in the process of You can speak in courses, but they'll take a couple of weeks.

In these courses, I show you in a detailed way how to write and structure your answer. I give you lots of practice and I show you plenty of sample answers. On top of that there are tons of PDFs you can download to help you study.

So if you're at all interested in taking more detailed and organized courses with me, you can find the links below in the description. But if you're not, that's fine, I will keep making good YouTube videos for free. So definitely subscribe to this channel for that.

Tip number four is to increase your vocabulary. So the Duolingo English test is really vocab heavy. There are two question types specifically designed to test your vocabulary, we have the read and choose the real word and the listen and choose.

So if you have a weak vocabulary, it'd be really hard to get a good score on this test. So how can you improve your vocabulary quickly? Well, luckily, there are some really useful word lists available.

Now it's important to know that these are not provided by the Duolingo test team. But nonetheless, they are extremely helpful to help you study and memorize some words really quickly. The best one can be found on Oxford learner's dictionary.

com If you head over to that website, go over to Word Lists, you can find different lists are different levels, I recommend you start studying at the B one, b two and C one level B one is low, intermediate and C two is low advanced. I don't think they have a C two list available just yet. I have put a link to this website below in the description.

I highly recommend you check that out. So the point number five is to read, read and read. So why should you read read read?

Well, isn't it obvious? Firstly, it helps improve your vocabulary. It helps you improve your comprehension, and particularly for the Duolingo English test.

It'll help you with one of the most difficult questions, which is fill in the blanks. The more frequently you read in English, the easier this question type will become. On top of that reading a lot, especially about different topics will help you with the speaking and writing parts of this test as well.

Because often those questions asked you to give your opinion. But if you don't know the topic, then you probably don't have an opinion about the topic. So the more you read, the more you will understand about the world.

And the more opinions you have to answer those questions. So what should you read? Well, of course, you should be reading news articles, daily, different blogs about different topics, and even people's opinions on social media, like on Facebook or Twitter.

But if you find reading those kinds of things quite challenging, I have a better resource for you. So if you head over to the BBC Learning English website, you can find a ton of free information to help you improve your English, particularly for reading. They do a review of the top stories in slightly more simple English.

So you can read about the topics you can learn some vocabulary, you can get an opinion about them, and they won't take you as much time or be as stressful for you. Next up we have do your own dictation. Okay, so the dictation is another big part of this English test, you have to listen and write down exactly what you hear.

Luckily for us these days, you can do this super easily just by going on YouTube, playing a small part of the video and writing down what you hear then you can double check your answers by looking at the captions. This is a good and simple way to do this by yourself. Alternatively, I have made lots of videos about dictation, you can test yourself with those.

And again, I do have a dictation course coming out soon. In this course I will teach you how to use correct grammar, correct punctuation and capitalization and provides you with hundreds of different dictation tasks from easy to difficult. But the key point is that you practice, practice, practice, the Duolingo English test is not an easy test.

But it will become easier if you practice these things every day. Next, you have to prepare mentally. Just like I mentioned in the first point, the Duolingo English test is a very fast exam.

As soon as you've finished one question, the next one comes and you usually just have a minute or you have to complete it in a very short amount of time. So you have to be prepared for that Thinking quickly, in a second language like an English for you is really really hard. I know that actually I live in South Korea and I speak Korean almost daily.

And yeah, it's It's tough. It's truly exhausting. But you need to get ready, and you need to do it well.

So how can you get mentally ready? Well, I recommend you take the practice test every single day as often as you can, even though a lot of the questions will be repeated. If you do the practice tests often enough.

That's not really the point. The point is that you get ready mentally in terms of knowing the structure and getting used to the speed of the test. You can also look at your estimated score and take note is it going up?

Is it going down? If it's going down, you've got a problem. You've got to study harder, but if it's going up, then you know you're going in the right direction.

So that's how I think you should be studying for this exam. If you want more writing practice, click this video here. speaking practice this one here.

If you want organize courses, check the links below in the description. Thank you very much. And I'll see you next time.

Bye. Hi friends, today's video is so important because it's all about the rules you must follow when taking the Duolingo English test. Now, after you've taken your test, you do not want to receive an email like this, this or this day in that your test could not be certified.

Because you didn't follow all of the rules correctly, it's vital that you understand all of the rules before you take the test. And that's what this video is about. I'm going to talk about all the rules in three different categories, the environment, your computer, and a list of things not to do.

But very quickly before I go over those rules. If you're new to my channel, Hi, I'm Luke from D et ready. com.

Head over to that website to find more information, some courses and other useful things to help you study for this Duolingo English test. Okay, then we'll start by talking about these rules. But remember that this Duolingo English test is really awesome, because you can actually do it from your home, you don't have to go to a test center to take this test.

But that means that you are responsible for following all of the rules that Duolingo set out. Because this test is an official and reliable test, you need to follow the rules correctly. So remember that it is your responsibility to make sure you follow these rules.

Okay, they will let me help you understand them, we'll start with the environment. So environment basically means the room you're in, you can do this at home at an office or anywhere you want to as long as that room or environment follows the rules that Duolingo set out. If you head over to the official Duolingo Test Guide, which I will link below in the description, you can see this page.

And this page is aimed to help you prepare your environment. So these are the things you need to follow. Well, firstly, you can be comfortable so you can do this test anywhere you want to as long as it is private.

Next, you need to make sure that you're in a very quiet room without much background noise. And you need to be sure that that room is private need to be completely alone in the room. Those two aspects of the environment are really important, you need to make sure that the room is quiet.

So if you live with people, make sure they know that you're taking a test and ask them to be quiet for about 60 minutes. Also, you might live in a very loud city. If that's the case, I suggest finding a quiet time to take the test.

Next, you need to make sure that you are alone in the room, you're not allowed to have any people with you I've seen online, some people suggest that you should put a mirror behind you to show the rest of your room. But you don't need to do that. Just make sure you're in a quiet room with no one else.

And also importantly is about how bright the room is. The third point here it says that the room should be bright, because the Proctor's will need to be able to see and hear you clearly throughout the test. So make sure the room isn't too dark.

So this point is really important. The room needs to be really bright, like my room here, so that the Proctor's the examiners can actually see your face and see your eyes. That way, they can ensure that you're not cheating.

If your room is really dark like this, then the Proctor's or the examiners, they can't see your face or your eyes. And that way they can check if you're cheating or not. So make sure your room is really bright.

So that's it with environment, make sure you're in a quiet room by yourself and it's very well lit. Now let's take a look at your computer. There are some specific requirements you need in terms of your computer.

So let's take a look at these now by going to the Duolingo test Help Center. Again, I'll put a link to this below in the description. So here in terms of your computer, you obviously need a computer, you need reliable internet connection.

And importantly, your computer must have a front facing camera, a microphone and speakers. So you need to make sure that your computer has all of these different features. Modern day computers, especially laptops usually come with a good webcam, good speakers and a good microphone.

So if your laptop is new, you don't have to worry too much. But if you're using an old laptop or an old computer, you can use external things like an external webcam and external keyboard or external speakers. Those are all okay, but you can't use anything that cover your years.

So you can't use a headset or UFOs or anything like that. We'll talk more about that in the rule section. But just let you know you cannot use anything that covers your years, but you can use external speakers you If your laptop or computer is too quiet, okay, so that's the computer setup.

Now let's look at a list of things you should not do during the test. Again, I will use the Duolingo test Help Center to run you through these rules. There's a link to this below in the description, I highly recommend you go and check that out, because it has all the rules like this.

And a lot of other frequently asked questions is a great source of information for you. But let's take a look here at the different rules. Okay, so here are the rules, there are a lot as you can see, let's start with the first one, which we've already talked about, which is that you must be in a quiet well lit room.

We've already talked about that. So let's move on to the next one. The next one is that your use must be visible and uncovered and your face must be visible and unobscured.

So let's just keep this simple. You are not allowed to wear anything that covers your face or your years. So things like headsets, headphones, and those kinds of things.

However, if you have to wear some kind of religious headcoverings, that is okay. Okay, next one, no outside materials, including mobile phones, notes or textbooks. This is just like in a normal test.

And of course, when you go to a test center, you can't take your phone or any extra notes with you. So don't try to hide it. It is quite obvious if you look down at something where I think some students get confused with this one is that usually when you take a test like the TOEFL or IELTS, you are allowed to take notes to help you with your answers.

But for the Duolingo English test, you are not allowed to take any notes during the test. So don't bring a pen and paper if you do your test will not get certified. Okay, next up, no communication with anyone else.

As we talked about before, you are not allowed to talk to anyone else during the test, make sure you are completely alone in your room. No writing utensils or paper. So basically no pens or pencils and paper, like I just mentioned, you are not allowed to take notes during the test.

And this one is the most important, do not look away from the screen. So this is the big one, I receive a lot of emails from students, they know that test did not get certified, because they looked away from the screen for too long. You lingo will send you an email like this, if that happens to you.

And of course, we don't want this to happen to you. So you need to make sure that your eyes are either on your screen or your keyboard at all times during the test. You are allowed to look down when typing, but you have to make sure that your eyes somewhere or somewhere on your screen or your keyboard at all times.

Of course, that's quite hard because you have to take this test for about an hour. And it's quite hard to look at your screen completely for an hour. But you need to do it.

It's one of the rules. And like I said earlier, you have responsibility, it's your responsibility to make sure you follow the rules. So just do your best to try to keep your eyes on the screen or your keyboard.

Luckily, if you do look away and your test doesn't get certified, usually Duolingo give you another go for free. But still we don't want that to happen. So just make sure your eyes are on your screen or your keyboard at all times.

Okay, next up we have do not leave the test window for any reason. Now this one happened to me actually, when I took the test, I moved my mouse cursor a little bit and I went out of the window and I had to restart the test. Basically your mouse like this cannot leave the window, it must stay within the test window.

So don't move your mouse too much. Next up we have do not use any predictive input methods. I think this is referring to extra software like Grammarly, which can help your spelling, you're not allowed to use any software to assist you on this test.

Next up, do not use any third party web camera software. So make sure you turn that off. And don't use a second monitor or any software that enables screen sharing or remote access.

Of course, you can't use two monitors because your webcam is usually in front of you. If you have two monitors, you might look away, which means that you've broken one of the rules and your tests won't get certified. So just use one simple monitor.

Keep it simple. Okay, next up is that you need to speak for at least 30 seconds on the topics presented. Okay, that's an important one.

So for the speaking ones, you need to make sure that you speak for at least 30 seconds and your answers need to be related to the topic. If your answers are not related to the topic, then the examiners might think that you've just memorized the response and you will fail for that. So make sure that you speak for at least 30 seconds on the topic you are given.

And next up do not use another person's name or We'll add information to take the test. So those are the rules on the Duolingo test page. But actually, I want to add a couple more some things I've noticed from my Facebook group.

Okay, the first one is that you should not memorize answers. If Duolingo think that you have memorized answers for the speaking and writing questions, and they're likely to fail you for that. So make sure you don't memorize answers is the same for the IELTS and TOEFL test to the next one is that you should not make two accounts.

Of course, when you take the test, you have to input your ID or password and Duolingo will match them with your accounts. If you use too, you will get banned. And last one, but very important one is to do if you wear glasses.

Now this is not a rule. But sometimes if you wear glasses and you have a light in front of you, there is glare and then the examiners can't see your eyes. If the examiners can't see your eyes, clearly, they can't tell where you're looking and they can't tell if you're looking away to cheat or something.

So if you do wear glasses, make sure the lighting is above you or behind you, and there's no glare in your glasses. Okay, that's it for me. But remember, I have put some links below to the to lingo official guide and their help page where you can read these rules more carefully.

I hope this video was helpful. Thanks very much for watching, and I'll be back next week with a new Duolingo test video. See you then.