The Duolingo English Test is computer-adaptive: the difficulty of what you see next responds to how you have answered so far. That single fact changes several habits carried over from paper exams — you cannot skip and return, you cannot budget effort across a whole paper you have seen, and a run of hard questions is good news rather than bad.
If the words are getting rarer and the passages denser, the test has moved up to find your ceiling. That is exactly what you want. Candidates who read it as failure start rushing, and the rush does the damage.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer, and an adaptive test needs a response to decide what to show you next. A reasoned guess gives the test information; a blank gives it nothing useful about you.
You cannot return to an item once you have left it. Decide, submit, forget. Replaying a question you can no longer change is the most expensive habit on the whole test.
Early responses steer where the test goes next, so the first minutes are not a warm-up. Be settled, focused and unhurried before the test starts, not three tasks in.
You cannot see the weighting, and the attempt costs concentration you need for the current item. Score-watching during a test reliably makes the result worse.
One poor answer does not decide the outcome; a defensive run of ten does. Reset with a breath and treat the next item as the first one.
Literacy, comprehension, conversation and production each draw on several tasks. After the test, they tell you which group of skills to train. During the test they are irrelevant.
Practise with material slightly above your comfort level, timed, with no second attempts. Practising only what you can already do trains you for a test that does not exist.
Since you take it at home, choose the time of day when you read and speak best, and protect the hour before it. Adaptivity punishes a slow start more than a paper test does.
Not this‘The questions got harder, so I must be failing.’
This‘The questions got harder, so the test is looking for my limit.’
Misreading adaptivity as failure causes panic, and panic costs far more than the difficult items did.
Not thisLeaving an item blank because you are unsure.
ThisChoosing the best available answer.
There is nothing to be gained from a blank. An informed guess can be right, and either way the test needs a response to place you.
Not thisTrying to go back to an earlier item.
ThisAccepting that each item is finished when you leave it.
The format does not allow revisiting, and the attempt wastes seconds while you discover that again.
Not thisTreating the first few items as a warm-up.
ThisStarting at full concentration.
Early answers influence the path the test takes, so a sleepy start can lower the difficulty band you are working in.
Not thisComparing your test with a friend’s, question by question.
ThisComparing preparation, not items.
Two candidates rarely see the same items, so the comparison tells you nothing and can dent your confidence before you start.
Not thisPractising only tasks you enjoy.
ThisPractising the task your subscores say is weakest.
An adaptive test finds your weakest area quickly. Avoiding it in practice does not hide it on the day.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the word.
3Complete the word.
5Complete the word.
7Complete the word.
8Explain in two sentences why trying to calculate your score during the test makes the result worse.
One good answer
The weighting is not visible to me, so any calculation is guesswork built on incomplete information. Worse, it takes attention away from the item in front of me, which is the only thing I can still affect.
10Complete the word.
12Complete the word.
14Complete the word.
16You have just answered three items badly in a row. Describe exactly what you do before the next one.
One good answer
I take one slow breath, remind myself that a single run does not decide the result, and treat the next item as if it were the first of the test. What I do not do is try to reconstruct the three answers, because they are already submitted.
17Complete the word.
21Complete the word.
23Complete the word.
25Complete the word.
27Complete the word.
28Describe how you would use your subscores after a practice test to decide what to do next.
One good answer
I would find the lowest subscore and list the tasks that feed into it, then give that group twenty focused minutes a day and leave my strongest group to a weekly check. If two subscores are close, I would choose the one with the task I most dislike, since that is usually where the avoidance is.
30Complete the word.
32Complete the word.
34Complete the word.
36Write the two sentences you will say to yourself if the test suddenly feels much harder than your practice did.
One good answer
This is the test looking for my limit, which is what it is supposed to do. My job is the item in front of me, at the same standard as the first one.
37Complete the word.
Note
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Usually, yes. An adaptive test raises difficulty to locate the top of your ability, so a run of demanding items is a sign it is working, not a warning.
No. Once you leave an item it is finished, which is why deciding and moving on matters more here than on a paper exam.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a reasoned guess is always better than a blank. Check the current official guidance if you want the detail for a specific task.
They group the skills rather than separating them: literacy covers reading and writing, comprehension reading and listening, conversation listening and speaking, production writing and speaking. Use the lowest one to choose what to practise.
Because the items you see depend on how you answer. Comparing individual questions with another candidate tells you nothing about either result.