The free Duolingo English Test Practice Test now includes a few new question types.  Note that these question types are not on the real Duolingo English Test at this time.  The practice test is occasionally used to pilot question types that may or may not appear on the actual test later on.  These questions are:

1.  Listen to a sentence in English and then repeat it. The repetition is done from memory, as the sentence is not shown on the screen.
2.  Look at the script of a short conversation between two people with all of the dialog from one of the speakers missing.  Fill in those missing turns by dragging sentences from a list of options.  After that, summarize the conversation by writing a few sentences.

Let me know if you see these on the real test.

I updated the TOEFL and Duolingo English Test score requirements tracker for September. Only Columbia University revised its DET requirements based on the new score conversion charts provided by Duolingo.  They now require a DET score of 135, which is the highest I have ever seen.  This should come as no surprise to readers, as Columbia takes its English language testing more serious than most universities.  Even after achieving 135 on the DET, most students will be required to take the in-house ALP Essay Exam, which is a grueling 105-minute affair.  Good for Columbia for having standards. 

The chart is below (mobile users should tap and scroll horizontally). 

Recent changes to the Duolingo English Test to TOEFL score conversion table have inspired me to begin a new series of blog posts.  Over the next year I’ll track whether schools adjust their score requirements in light of these changes.  In the chart below are 17 schools across the United States and Canada.  Also listed are their required Duolingo and TOEFL requirements as listed on August 11, 2022 and in the spring of 2022.  I used the Wayback Machine to get the older scores, so they are not all from a specific date.  I’ll check in with these schools now and then to see if the requirements have been adjusted.

A few things are worth mentioning:

• Update:  I found a couple of schools in the UK.
• There are a couple of community colleges at the bottom of the list.
• The schools were selected mostly at random.
• I have not listed IELTS scores, but I will create Wayback Machine archives along the way so perhaps those can be added later.
• Many schools still list TOEFL PBT and CBT requirements.  Yikes.
• I can’t think of any licensing boards or non-academic institutions that take DET scores.  But if you can think of any please let me know.
• All scores are for undergraduate admissions.

Before we begin, note that:

• So far, none of the tracked schools have updated their requirements.
• However, the University of Pittsburgh recently updated its DET requirement!  The TOEFL requirement is currently 100, while the DET requirement is 125.  In don’t know exactly when it was adjusted, but in March of this year the requirement was 120.  This should not come as a surprise, as I believe that a relationship exists between that school and Duolingo.  In any case, the campus is within walking distance of Duolingo HQ.
• A few of the schools have fairly high DET requirements and don’t need to adjust them to match the current conversion chart.  But most of the schools may wish to consider making adjustments to match the chart.

If any readers of the blog have an attachment to a particular institution, I will be happy to add it to the tracker.  Just leave a comment below.

Enjoy.

Recently, the charts that convert Duolingo English Test Scores to TOEFL and IELTS scores were adjusted.  You can see the current charts right here.  An archive of the old charts is available via the Way Back Machine. 

For instance, previously a Duolingo English Test score of 125 converted to 103-107 on the TOEFL iBT.  Now, that converts to 93 -97 on the TOEFL iBT.

Likewise, a score of 125 on the Duolingo used to equal an IELTS score of 7.5, but now that is equal to an IELTS score of 6.5.

There are also changes to the Duolingo to CEFR conversion chart.

I suppose this is due to the inclusion of new question types on the DET.  I don’t know if any institutions have adjusted their score requirements at this time.  I suspect that many institutions are totally unaware of the change.

To illustrate, here is the top of the current Duolingo to TOEFL chart:

And here is the top of the old chart (forgive the broken image):

According to last week’s SEC filings, revenue for the Duolingo English Test in Q1 2022 was $8,080,000.  That’s almost exactly the same as Q4 2021.  It is up about three million dollars from Q1 of 2021.

At $49 a pop, we might extrapolate that the test was taken 165,000 times in the quarter. The actual number is probably a little bit higher than that due to discounts and free tests.

Here are the historic revenues:

Q1 2022 – 8,080,000

Q4 2021 – 8,095,000
Q3 2021 – 6,695,000
Q2 2021 – 4,833,000
Q1 2021 – 5,035,000

Q4 2020 – 4,197,000
Q3 2020 – 5,607,000
Q2 2020 – 4,598,000
Q1 2020 – 753,000

According to last week’s earnings call, revenue for the Duolingo English Test in Q4 2021 was $8,095,000. At $49 a pop, we might extrapolate that the test was taken 165,000 times in October/November/December of 2021. The actual number is probably a bit higher than that due to discounts and freebies.

This is up from a revenue of $6,695,000 in Q3 2020, and $4,197,000 in Q4 of 2020.

Here are the historic revenues:

Q4 2021 – 8,095,000
Q3 2021 – 6,695,000
Q2 2021 – 4,833,000
Q1 2021 – 5,035,000

Q4 2020 – 4,197,000
Q3 2020 – 5,607,000
Q2 2020 – 4,598,000
Q1 2020 – 753,000