Duolingo English Test scores explained: 10–160, subscores, and what moves them
Aman Batth · 4 min read · · Updated
The DET gives one score from 10 to 160 in steps of 5, plus eight subscores — the four skills and four integrated scores. Here is how each is worked out, what the adaptive section means for you, and where the points are.
The Duolingo English Test (DET) is now accepted by thousands of universities and colleges, and it is the only major test you can sit at home, on your own laptop, with results in about two days (results within two days). It is also the test candidates understand least, because both its format and its score report are unlike PTE, IELTS or CELPIP.
The overall score: 10 to 160
Your certificate shows one overall score between 10 and 160, in steps of 5. (scale of 10 to 160) Institutions usually ask for 105 to 125 for undergraduate admission and 115 to 130 for graduate programs, but the exact number is set by each school, so check the admissions page rather than a forum. We keep a longer list of universities that accept the DET, and the DET score chart puts the scale next to IELTS, TOEFL and CEFR.
Duolingo's official CEFR alignment puts 60 to 95 at B1, 100 to 125 at B2, 130 to 150 at C1 and 155 to 160 at C2 (DET CEFR alignment). Duolingo also publishes an official concordance with IELTS and TOEFL: 120, for example, sits at IELTS 6.5 and TOEFL iBT 87 to 92 (DET Scoring Guide). The score chart linked above has every score.
Eight subscores: four skills and four integrated
Your report shows eight subscores, all on the same 10–160 scale (DET Scoring Guide). Four are the skills other tests report — Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking — and your overall score is their average. The other four are integrated, and each is the average of two skills:
- Literacy — reading and writing
- Comprehension — reading and listening
- Conversation — listening and speaking
- Production — speaking and writing
So every skill feeds two integrated subscores. Weak writing lowers Writing, and with it both Literacy and Production; weak listening lowers Listening, Comprehension and Conversation. This is why "my speaking is fine, only writing is weak" shows up as three subscores below the others.
The test is adaptive
The first section of the exam adapts: answer well and the next items get harder, and harder items are worth more. This has two consequences for preparation. First, the early Read and Select and Fill in the Blanks items matter more than their simplicity suggests, because they set the difficulty of what follows. Second, there is no fixed number of questions to "get through", so pacing by count does not work. Pace by the on-screen timer for each item.
The task types
The adaptive section rotates through short items: Read and Select (is this a real English word?), Fill in the Blanks, Read and Complete (restore missing letters in a passage), Listen and Type, Read Aloud, Interactive Reading and Interactive Listening sets, Write About the Photo, Speak About the Photo, and Read, Then Speak.
After the adaptive section come two longer production tasks that are recorded and scored, and also shared with institutions: a Writing Sample (3 to 5 minutes) and a Speaking Sample (1 to 3 minutes). Admissions officers can read and listen to these, so treat them as the part of the test a human will see.
Where points are won and lost
- Read and Complete punishes guessing. Restore letters only where the word is unambiguous from context; a wrong letter costs as much as a blank.
- Listen and Type is sentence dictation. Spelling counts. Practise typing what you hear immediately, not after the second play.
- Write About the Photo and Speak About the Photo are scored on how much you say that is relevant, with grammar and vocabulary range on top. One minute of specific description ("a woman in a yellow jacket is checking a timetable while…") outscores thirty seconds of "this is a nice picture".
- Interactive Speaking and the Speaking Sample reward fluency: keep talking, in complete sentences, for the whole time.
How to prepare in a week or in a month
One week: learn every task type so nothing surprises you, do timed drills of the three adaptive item types you find hardest, and record two full speaking samples to hear your own pauses.
One month: add full mocks under the real timer, track accuracy per task type rather than the overall number, and rewrite your writing samples after reading the scorer's word-level feedback.
Hilingo's DET mocks run every task type with the same timers as the real test and score them on the 10–160 scale with the four integrated subscores, so the number you practise with is the number you will recognise on results day. Your first mock is free.