Possible problems while practicing Duolingo English Test

First of all, we are very sorry for all the inconvenience you have experienced so far. 

We list out all possible problems you may face while practicing on your DET Practice Platform and how to solve them. 

Let’s get started.

0. Are DET Practice - TADE Hub questions 100% the same as real test questions?

The answer is NO. Our practice questions are similar to real test questions, not 100% as questions in the DET. If DET has a question: "Who do you resemble the most in your family?"; our question will be like, "Who do you respect or be similar to the most in your family?". 

We aim to offer the best DET Practice simulation for your preparation, so you can get familiar with all question types and know how to utilise your skills. Because the best way to prepare for your test is to improve your general English and practice as many questions as you can. Additionally, you should know that the DET question pool is extremely large, so there are no ways to study some specific questions and expect to see them on your test day. 

1. For Speaking questions only, some words weren't transcribed

When we say Speaking questions, they include Speak About the Photo, Read then Speak, Listen then Speak, and Speaking Sample. Besides, the following notices are not technical issues. They are simply some situations that you will likely experience while practicing, so we would like to inform you in advance. 

Additionally, our DET Practice Platform provides instant feedback for all question types, not only Speaking questions. So we recommend you read this article, "Your DET instant feedback and all grading elements" to fully understand all estimated scores on our Duolingo English Test Practice Platform.

a. If you speak over 90 seconds

First thing first, all speaking questions (except Speaking Sample) only allow test-takers 90 seconds to speak. Therefore, if we speak over 90 seconds, it means that this case only applies to Speaking Sample. Currently, our system supports a maximum of 90 seconds of pronunciation assessment and transcription to maintain the speed of the platform. Thus, students will not see words being spoken after 90 seconds transcribed and pronunciation evaluation after 90 seconds of their speaking time. 

Sometimes, students need more time to receive feedback because there are thousands of students practicing at the same time as you besides your speaking time. No worry, it still works normally! 

b. Some words don’t appear regardless of your speaking time 

Sometimes, you will see words you didn't speak, for example “developing” in the image. In this case, please listen to your audio recording carefully because it’s possible that you have made a HUGE pronunciation mistake that the system was not able to transcribe it correctly, far less evaluating your Pronunciation.

2. To ensure you receive Estimated scores after completing your Full Test

Some test-takers couldn't receive Estimated scores after completing their Full Test, and the screen kept processing without end. There are several suggestions that you should check your computer or laptop beforehand to ensure you will get your Duolingo English Test estimated scores. 

• Provide permissions to access audio on your web browser: Sometimes, test-takers forget to do this, so our system cannot evaluate their skills due to a lack of data. 
• Set English as the default input language: We all have our mother tongue, so make sure that you use English in the beginning to take the test. 
• Stop all ad-block applications: You need to stop your advertisement block application or any software apps that interfere with our system. 
• Delete all cache: Delete all cache and test again if you don't receive estimated scores. 
• Please take your Practice Full Test in a quiet place: If there is too much noise, it will surely affect our recording system, which takes a longer time to display feedback and inaccurate results.
• Update your Operating System regularly because the old ones could cause technical issues and work slowly.

If you are sure that you follow all the above guides and still waited over 5 minutes but no feedback is ready yet. It's okay! Please watch this guide to check your result in the History Feedback.

3. The “delete”, “erase”, or “back” button does not work

It rarely happens that test-takers cannot use their delete button; the main reason is because of “application conflict”. Simply put, some applications are not compatible with our Practice Platform. No worries, we have several ways to solve this issue.

• Set English as the default input language: Test takers come from all parts of the world, so they may accidentally use their mother language as an input. Please change it to English and test again.
• Turn off all ads prevention applications: Ads prevention applications or some extensions affect java script, so turn them off for a while when you practice.
• Close the platform or shut down your computer and turn it on: When you open too many websites or applications that you don’t acknowledge, the best way is to shut down your computer and turn it on.
• Try to connect with a new keyboard: Sometimes, the old one is not compatible with our Practice Platform, so you may need to test the new one. 

4. Speaking questions do not show feedback

a. Do not show feedback

This problem could happen when users practice Speak About the Photo, Read then Speak, Listen then Speak, and Speaking Sample.

Have you seen the following image?

If you see the above images, kindly follow our guides and test them again. 

1. Make sure that you already click the "Record" button before speaking: We have to click it to open the Microphone before speaking our answers. It's the same when students take the certified Duolingo English Test, students still need to click the "Record" button.
2. Make sure that you allow the browser (Chrome, Safari, or other browsers) to record audio: This is a common mistake that users unintentionally forget to allow the browser to record audio. It's super easy to allow the browser to record audio, depending on your browser, go search on Google on how to allow it to record audio.
3. Make sure that you DON'T wear headphones or earphones: The DET doesn't allow takers to use headphones or earphones while taking the test, so why do we do it while practising? We built it similar to the real test, and if users wear headphones or earphones, the quality of sounds decreases leading to no feedback.
4. Make sure that you practice in a quiet place: A noisy place obviously decreases the audio quality, which is the main reason why the system cannot detect your voice and offer feedback.
5. Try not to stop for over three seconds: In the real test, stopping over three seconds negatively impacts your Fluency score. On our Practice Website, it's a sign that you already stop speaking and the system will no longer record your voice. If you pause too many times in the early of your talk, the information is inadequate to provide feedback. We recommend users use the following expressions to help them brainstorm ideas to answer instead of pausing for over three seconds: "Well, it's hard for me to express that ...", "This question is completely new to me, so I believe that ... ", "Regarding ... , I reckon that ... ".

If you already apply all our recommendations but the problem still exists, you should check the laptop or computer's recording system. Because even if you allow Chrome to record audio and already click the "Record" button, your laptop still cannot receive any sound due to its broken recording system.

If you already try a new laptop but the problem still remains, please make a screen recording and send it to our Support Team at support@detpractice-tadehub.com for support.

b. The waiting time is too long

Normally, the longest time to wait if users speak all 90 seconds is less than 3 minutes. It depends on the laptop or PC that users use aside from their Internet connection. If the laptop is strong with modern hardware, it could take just 01 minute or less. But if the laptop is running slowly, it could take up to 3 minutes.

Not to mention that if students have a slow Internet connection, it will take a longer time to proceed. Sometimes, the system will automatically return to the Question page (as below) because the students' internet speed is too slow which stops the process. 

If the waiting time is over 3 minutes but users haven't received feedback. Kindly open a new tab and access your History feedback page to check if the result's available. Usually, even though the progress bar is still loading, the result is already ready on the History feedback page. 

This is your guide to accessing the History feedback page.

Moreover, if the issue keeps occurring, kindly follow the below guides:

• Provide permissions to access audio on your web browser: Sometimes, test-takers forget to do this, so our system is stuck in getting to the final result.
• Close the platform or shut down your computer and turn it on: When you open too many websites or applications that you don’t acknowledge, the best way is to shut down your computer and turn it on again.
• Stop all ad-block applications: You need to stop your advertisement-block application or any software apps that interfere with our system. 
• Delete all cache: Caches help our laptops run faster as it stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. Sometimes, it mistakes with our previous actions and keeps showing the same technical issues.
  

5. Grammar or spelling problems 

The academic Team at TADE Hub always strives to make the best platform, including minimising Grammar or Spelling mistakes to the lowest. Nonetheless, there will be mistakes sometimes, which is inevitable. Therefore, we have the feature of Question Report where users can report any Grammar or Spelling mistakes while practising which will help us solve the issues faster. Besides, by reporting our mistakes, users also get discount codes in addition to more Premium days.

6. The integrated dictionary does not work 

Our dictionary is built with millions of words, but there are still words that we don’t have in our library yet. Therefore, if you double-click a word for meanings and we don’t have it in the library, you will not see it appears. Usually, you will see a word’s meaning in 2-3 seconds if we have it in our library.

In this case, we strongly suggest you use the following dictionaries:

• Oxford Learner’s Dictionary
• Cambridge Dictionaries 

7. The result of the Read and Complete questions is not correct

If you see the below feedback, you need to set English as the default input language. 

Our test takers come from all over the world in Vietnam, India, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Peru, Bangladesh, the US, etc. Most of us have our mother tongue different from English, so we sometimes unintentionally use our mother tongue as an input language, which causes such a problem.

8. Something wrong with Lexical Sophistication

Just a few test-takers see the following image when they check Lexical Sophistication feedback. If you have also experienced it, kindly follow our recommendations to solve this problem. 

• Stop all extensions or apps: If you are using some extensions or apps to support your study and work, we strongly recommend you stop them all temporarily. Because extensions or apps may affect our technology in identifying your English mistakes. Besides, when you take the real test, you will definitely need to close all extensions or apps. 
• Fully open your browser: When you practice on the DET Practice Platform, you need to open your browser fully to prevent unnecessary issues. 

9. I only get 50% overall scores in Speaking questions

If users pause too many times, or their pauses are too long than necessary, this issue may occur even if users utilise all 90 seconds to speak because their actual speaking time is lower than 30 seconds. The actual speaking time means the total amount of time that we speak, which doesn't include dead time, such as pauses and meaningless words (um, ah, etc.).

In the Duolingo English Test, they require test-takers to speak for at least 30 seconds in all Speaking question types. Therefore, we set this up to inform test-takers that their speeches still need to be improved, which means test-takers need to put more time into practicing for their desired scores.

This is an example of one of our Premium users. Please kindly take a look for a better understanding. If users see the following feedback, it's time to improve our general English skills, especially our Speaking ability to deliver a smoother speech. 

10. I received "NaN" for Coherence and Grammatical Complexity

We apologise for this inconvenience! There are two scenarios that may happen that lead to this result, and the good news is, we have solutions!

• Scenario 1: Students may use some special symbols such as ... ,  " " , ( ) , [ ] , \ / , % , @ , and so on. Please remember, in Academic writing, we should not use any of them. You should recheck your answer again if you receive the "NaN" result. This scenario only happens in Writing question types.
• Scenario 2: This only happens to Speaking questions. If users pause over three (03) seconds or use too many no-meaning words such as "ah", "oh", "um" while speaking, it leads to "NaN" result. Please review your audio recording after receiving feedback and pay attention to your speech next time to avoid it. Practising not to use no-meaning words or pause for too long while speaking will get you higher scores as well.
• Scenario 3: If you review your practising answers, and they don't have any special symbols or no-meaning words, then you can wait for around 10-20 seconds more, and your feedback will be automatically updated. In this situation, over a hundred students are requesting feedback simultaneously besides an old version of the laptop (which operates slowly), which causes this issue. This scenario can happen in both Speaking and Writing question types.
  
  If you have been waiting for over 20 seconds, feel free to practice other questions and check the current feedback later on your History feedback page.

Feedback is not ready: This feedback appears right after you submit your practicing answer.

Feedback is ready: This feedback is automatically updated after five (05) seconds when you receive the above feedback.

Nonetheless, if users believe there are other reasons causing this issue. Please send us your video recording to support@detpractice-tadehub.com, and we will check it carefully and share 15 FREE Premium days in 02 working days after our confirmation. 

11. Read Aloud does not show your answer

If you see the following result, it is because of the noise around your place causing the problem. It is the same if you take the full test, you need to ensure your testing environment is quiet. If you sit at a coffee shop, you can practice Writing and other item types, but not Read Aloud and Speaking questions because we record your voice, and if there is noise, the system will face problems in identifying your words, which causes this issue.

Sometimes, if your electronic fan makes a loud noise, it could be the reason for this issue as well. If you try the question again but the issue is still there, kindly move on and get back to it later.

In case you receive feedback, but in your answer, there are some words that you didn't speak (see the below image), then the reasons are your pronunciation and the noisy environment where you practice.

For example, I didn't speak the word "handling", but it appeared in my answer because the system identified it through my voice.

At first, I did not know that I pronounced that word incorrectly, so I decided to double-check on that word. Firstly, I listened to my audio recording again and compared it to how it is pronounced in the Sample Answerr. It turns out that I pronounced the word "aiming" completely wrong which I didn't even know in the past. Thus, please always check our feedback with care to improve your pronunciation.

12. Wrong display in the Grammatical Accuracy feedback section

We are utilising the latest model of gpt offered by Open AI to develop this feedback section. From time to time, if the model receives too many requests simultaneously, it will show mistakes.

Example 1:

In this example, the number 3 should not be there, so we have a complete sentence. This one, we confirm, is a mistake in displaying feedback by the gpt model.

Example 2:

In this example, in the answer, we have "having a conversation together", which is a correct grammatical structure. But feedback number 2 doesn't get it, so the gpt model made a mistake in displaying feedback.

If you see any displaying mistakes, please just continue your practice as it doesn't happen often.

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If you experience other problems, feel free to contact us any time. Simply click the Phone button in the bottom right-hand corner and choose your favorite platform for communication. 

We truly appreciate your feedback; every thought is valuable to building a better Practice Platform for you and other test-takers. If you haven’t experienced your DET Practice Platform yet, create your FREE account and boost your skills today!