As you might already know, there are going to
be some pretty big changes coming to the
Duolingo English Test in May of this year. So in
this video, I'm going to tell you all about these
changes, starting with the most important one,
which is a new question type.
So first up, we have a brand new question type
is called Interactive Listening, it looks like
this on the exam. For this question type,
you're asked to participate in an
academic conversation, either between a student
and a student or a student and a professor.
And during the conversation, you have to
listen and answer five or six multiple choice
questions, which are based on the context of
the conversation for this question type you are
participating. So you are one of the people in the
conversation so you choose the correct answer
by understanding the context and what has been
said throughout the conversation. So this
test your reading and listening skills. On top
of that, once the conversation is over, you
have to write a short summary. Just like this
example. This example comes from the official
Duolingo test website. And you will get this
question type twice on the exam. As for the time
limit for the listen and select in the correct
answers pot, you get four minutes, and you will
only get 75 seconds for the summary. So pretty
short. This new interactive reading
section will test your ability to listen and
understand real conversations in context.
And I believe to make the test experience more
interactive and more engaging. To learn more
about this, you can watch Caroline's video on the
official Duolingo YouTube channel as a great
resource. And of course, I will be making lots of
preparation videos in the near future. If you want
to prepare and get ready for this interactive
listening question in advance, then visit di t
ready.com. Because we've already got this up and
running for you, you can get used to this
experience of doing this interactive listening
question type. And you can check your answers
immediately. So far, we have close to 100
conversations, but we will be adding a lot more
soon. This is at d t ready.com. So that's one
of the major changes. But that's not all the next
one, I think you'll be quite happy about it.
So the second biggest change is to do with the
listen and select vocabulary question this
one here from May 1 2023. This question will no
longer be on the test. That's right. It's been
removed. And that's good. I think because this was
quite a challenging question type for many
students, just a heads up the read and select
question type. This one here will remain on the
test. So now there's only going to be one
vocabulary question type, which I think is good
news. Okay, next up, we have a change to do with
a speaking sample.
So currently, the speaking sample is
ungraded. That means it does not affect your
overall score. However, from May 1 2023, this
will change and it will become a graded question
it will still be sent to the universities you're
applying to as proof and a sample of your speaking
skills. But on top of that, it will go towards
your final production score on the Duolingo
English test. So those were three major changes,
but I've also noticed a few smaller ones that
have been updated to the practice test. So let's
talk about the smaller changes now.
Okay, so the first small change I noticed is to do
with the instructions for the right about a photo
and the read then right question types. The right
about a photo instructions used to look
like this write one or more sentences about the
image below. But now it's changed to write a
description of the image below for one minute the
instructions on the other writing question Read and
Write have also changed. The instructions used to
be right at least 50 words about this topic.
But now it asks you to write for five minutes by
guests that the minimum word limit of 50 has gone
or you just write as much as you can for five
minutes. This is not official. That's just my
guess for now. I will update you when I learned
for sure. Another minor changed, I noticed is to
do with the read and complete question type
here. Now this question type actually includes a
title above the text, which is really good
because you can now use that title to get more
clues about the contacts which should help you to
answer this question type better. So those are some
changes that are taking place from May 1 this
year. If any new ones come up, I'll write them
below in the description or if I've made any
mistakes, I will also write it down there. So
check that and you should also watch this speaking
video here because it will help you to describe
your photo really well. Okay, that's all from
this video and I'll see you here. Bye