Hi 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
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 your lingo English test teacher from DETReady.com. Head over to our 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 this 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 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 named 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 sub scores 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 a Duolingo test website, there is a practice test. So just head over to the official
site, 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 pit that requirements. So how can you find out? Well, let
me show you. So the first thing you do is go over to the dueling, go test website, and then go up to
institutions. And then who accepts the test. I think this is an incredibly useful feature that
that's your lingo team provided for us, it saves 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 and production. And my study point number three will
help you with that. So study point number three is to take some courses to help you improve your
score,
particularly your production school, 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 making speaking 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 or different levels, I recommend you start studying at the B one, B two
and C one level b1 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. Three 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 Julian go 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 ask 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 in 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 it's
truly exhausting. But you need to get ready. How do 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
test 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. Take note, is it going up? Is it going down, if it's going down, you got a problem,
you 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 organized courses, check the
links below in the description. Thank you very much, and I'll see you next time. Bye.