5 Easy Tips to Get a High Score on the Duolingo English Test in 2026

Hi, I'm teacher Luke, and if you are going to take the Duolingo English Test in 2026, this video is for you because I'm going to share with you five things you need to know to get ready for the test. Plus, I've got bonus tip for you at the end. If you follow these steps, you'll save time, you'll save money, and you'll massively increase your chances of getting the score you need. So, let's get started. Number one, know all the question types. The Duolingo English Test actually has quite lot of different question types, 13 in total. You can see them on the screen listed here. They cover vocabulary, reading, listening, speaking, and writing, all aspects of English. But, here's the truth. If you need to improve your score quickly, then focus mainly on the speaking and writing questions. There are seven of these questions in total. They are these ones here on the screen. And if you learn the right strategies for these questions, your score can improve very quickly. I've seen hundreds of students boost their score by 10, 20, even 30 points inside of my score boosting program just by focusing on the speaking and writing questions. And that's why on this YouTube channel, and also in my score boosting program, focus mainly on these speaking and writing questions. Trust me, just learning how to answer these questions is great way to boost your score very quickly. Now, moving on to step number two, don't pay full price. Okay, this is not really strategy for preparing for the exam, but it is strategy to save you some money. You can get 10% off your official Duolingo English Test when you buy the test through your results in just 24 hours, not the normal 48 hours. It's the same test, just cheaper, and you get your results faster. So, why not? There's link somewhere down here for that. Okay, moving on to step number three, practice the questions every single day. As you probably already know, the Duolingo English Test is quite different than the other English exams. It's much more modern test. One of the features is its speed. The test only takes 1 hour to complete, which is awesome. But, it means that the time limit you get for all of the different tasks is also pretty short. You have to think quickly, read quickly, listen quickly, type quickly, and speak quickly. And there's only one way to get good at that, and that is through daily practice. Now, there are few ways for you to practice. One of them is to use the official Duolingo Test website. Here, you can take full-length practice test and get an estimated score. It's obviously very reliable estimated score as it is from the official Duolingo English Test website, and it's great way for you to build your test stamina. Another way for you to practice is to use my practice platform at DET Ready. Here, you can practice thousands of question types on the exam and check your answers immediately. Students who enroll into my score boosting program get this AI practice platform for free along with strategy courses covering all of the different question types, plus live lessons with me every single week where I'll meet you and give you some personalized feedback. So, if you need to improve your score by 10, 20, even 30 points, then consider joining this program and take lessons with me. Learn complex sentences. This one is simple but really powerful tip. It's about using complex grammar. On the Duolingo English Test for the writing questions, you only get 5 minutes. It's not very long time, meaning that you will be writing very naturally and spontaneously. You won't be thinking too much about how to use advanced grammar, simply because there's not enough time. However, grammatical complexity is on the scoring criteria, as you can see right here. Meaning, it is important that you use at least some advanced grammatical structures in your answer if you want to get the highest score. So, here is what recommend. For interactive writing and for the writing sample, the main writing questions on the exam, you need to include at least one complex sentence in each answer. Complex sentences are high-scoring sentences on the Duolingo English Test, also on the IELTS and the TOEFL exams, too. If you can write correct complex sentence, it shows that you have good grasp of English grammar, and that is, of course, important on an English test. But, very quickly, what is complex sentence? complex sentence is sentence that has one main idea. This is known as the independent clause, and one extra idea, known as the dependent clause. The dependent clause begins with special connecting word, called subordinating conjunction. These words, which I'm sure you are aware of, words like even though, although, because, since. So, let's look at some examples. Even though prefer studying at home, sometimes go to the library to stay focused. Despite the challenges, believe this experience has improved my communication skills. When work in quiet environment, can concentrate much better. Those are just some examples. Of course, there are lots of other ways to write complex sentence. I'm not going to cover that in this video, but will make video in the future. Also, if you are part of the score boosting program, there are lessons on that already inside that program. But, when you do your practice for the Duolingo English Test, make sure to include at least one of these sentences in your interactive writing and your writing sample answers. It will help you lot. Practice typing. Okay, this one might sound too simple, but it is important. Like mentioned earlier, the Duolingo English Test is fast test. You do not have lot of time to answer your questions, particularly the writing ones. Or listen and type, this one on the screen right here. Inside of my program, get to meet lot of people who are about to take the test, and I've noticed something. lot of them are just too slow at typing in English. And that makes sense. They're probably more used to typing in their first language, not in their second language, of course, that's English. And it's quite simple thing to work on. If you practice every single day typing in English, then that will, of course, help you boost your typing speed and help you to answer the writing questions on the Duolingo English Test much quicker and much easier. This is great website you can use to practice, and it's totally free. It's called 10fastfingers.com. Just go to this website and practice for 10 or 20 minutes day with this game where you got to type out the words and try to beat your own record. It's fun way to improve your typing speed, and it's free website to use. use it myself, so go ahead and try it out. bonus tip is to learn the rules for the test. One of the best things about the Duolingo English Test is that you do not need to go to test center. You can take the test at home or anywhere you want to, as long as it's quiet. But, that means that the responsibility to follow the rules falls just on you. So, it's really important that you know what the rules are, you understand them, and of course, you follow them when you're taking the test. The last thing you want to get is an invalid result, like you can see here. These are the main rules. However, there are few more. I'm going to put the official link down here in the video description. Make sure you click that and you read the rules to understand them properly. The responsibility is on you to follow them. So, those are some steps you need to follow if you want to get the highest score possible when you take your test in 2026. Now, before you leave, recommend you watch this speaking video right here because it will teach you strategies how to answer all of the speaking questions on the test. That is something lot of students struggle with. So, watch this video now and learn how to answer the speaking questions perfectly. I'll see you here.