The Duolingo English Test just announced its new updates in Spring 2024, taking effect from April 2, 2024 onwards.
There are three main updates that DET takers need to pay close attention to:
New Interactive Writing question
New Fill in the Blanks question
The format of the Read and Select question changed
New Interactive Writing question type
Task: They ask you to “Write about the topic below for five minutes,” and then “Write a follow-up response for three minutes.”
Timer: 8 minutes in total
Sub-scores: Literacy and Production
Frequency: 1 set
cre: Duolingo English Test
In this new update, we have two questions: the main question and the follow-up question.
The main question is similar to the old Read then Write question type, which gives students five minutes to write at least 50 words. However, when this new update takes effect, Duolingo English Test takers are only allowed to move on after three minutes in five minutes given.
Regarding the follow-up question, we have three minutes to answer a new question, which has a connection to the main one. Students also need to write for at least one minute in order to move on.
If you are looking for strategies to deal with this new Interactive Writing set, let’s take an utmost look at this guide to help you achieve high scores.
New Fill in the Blanks question
Task: They ask you to “Complete the sentence with the correct word.”
Timer: 20 seconds each question
Sub-scores: Literacy and Comprehension
Frequency: 6-9 times
cre: Duolingo English Test
If we compare it to Read and Complete, there is actually no difference. In Read and Complete, we have a paragraph containing several sentences and lots of words that need to be completed. In this new question type – Fill in the Blanks, we only have one sentence and one word needs to be completed per time. However, all 6-9 sentences will appear in one single section that we need to complete one by one, and all these 6-9 sentences have no connection to one another.
If you are looking for strategies, we already developed a unique one for Read and Complete. Again, because the nature between Read and Complete and Fill in the Blanks is the same, so DET takers can apply strategies for Read and Complete to Fill in the Blanks as well.
The format of the Read and Select question changed
Task: They ask you to answer “Is this a real English word?”
Timer: 05 seconds for each question
Sub-scores: Literacy and Comprehension
Frequency: 15-18 times
cre: Duolingo English Test
In the old format, we have a total of eighteen words in a Read and Select question that DET takers need to pick real words. In this new format, each word will appear separately and students need to choose “Yes” or “No”. After picking “Yes” or “No”, the test automatically moves on to the next question. We will need to complete all 15-18 times in one single section.
Here are your tips to face Read and Select questions successfully, it was developed to deal with the old format, but everything is the same except the format itself, so we can still use it to improve our scores for Read and Select.
Live-Interactive DET Practice Platform
Once we get the announcement from the Duolingo English Test regarding new updates from Spring 2024, our Academic and Development teams take action immediately to apply new updates to our platform for your Preparation. Once all new updates are ready, we will announce them publicly so you have everything up-to-date to prepare for the DET.
In the meantime, you can practice all other question types normally and receive instantly detailed feedback for all question types. To illustrate, when it comes to Speak About the Photo, our platform evaluates your answer based on the same grading elements as the DET uses to assess your scores: Fluency, Relevance, Coherence, Lexical Diversity, Lexical Sophistication, Grammatical Complexity, Grammatical Accuracy, and Acoustic Features (Pronunciation).
Here are the benefits of becoming our Premium members.
Over 3.500 practice questions;
15 DET Full Mock Tests;
Same grading elements as the DET;
Instantly detailed feedback for all question types;
Three supportive vocab lists;
An integrated dictionary.
DET takers can create a FREE account to experience all the primary features. Wait no more, let’s visit the DET Practice Platform and start boosting your scores today.
