Hi friends in this video, we're going to talk about five things you need to do to get a
good production score on the Duolingo English Test. So let's get right to it. Tip number one is
to learn how to describe a photo. So on the Duolingo English test, you have to describe four
photos in total, three through writing, and one through speaking, and they each contribute to your
production sub score. So if you want to get a good score production, it's essential that you're able
to describe a photograph well, but it's not easy. A lot of my students struggle with this question
type greatly, because in real life, we don't often describe a photo in as much detail as Duolingo
wants us to. So to do well, you have to practice and I recommend learning a method or a strategy to
help you to answer this question type. Well, I have a method which I teach my students and they
find it really helpful, it helps you to organize your answer really well. So let me show you this
method right here. Here we'll talk about a simple structure or method you can use for writing about
a photo. For this question type, you have one minute to describe the photo in at least one
sentence, but I recommend you try to write more than one sentence. So here's a simple structure
you can memorize sentence number one, you give a general overview of the photograph. For example,
this picture shows two young women holding hands in a green field sentence to you can talk about
who is doing what or what is where you can go into more detail here. The woman on the right is taking
a photo with her camera and laughing loudly. And sentence three. If you have enough time, you can
speculate something like they must be best friends. So I hope you can see here that learning
a method like this for answering this question type will help you because you know how to
structure your answer. And then you can just focus on the photograph you have to describe. If you
want to learn this in more detail, I do have a full course covering this, you can find the link
below in the description. So tip number two is to speak and write as much as you can. So this one is
for the longer writing and speaking questions. You have to do these a few times on the test. For the
writing question which looks like this on the exam, you have to respond to a prompt with at
least 50 words, and you have five minutes to do so for the speaking once we have read then speak it
looks like this on the test. Here you have to read a prompt or a set of questions and respond for
between 60 to 90 seconds. And lastly, we have the listen then speak question type it looks like this
on the exam. Here you have to listen to a prompt or listen to a question and respond through
speaking. And again, you have between 60 and 90 seconds to speak these three different question
types contribute greatly to your production score. So if you want a good score in production, you
need to do well on all three of these questions. And an issue I see a lot with my students is that
they don't actually write or speak enough. If you look on the scoring criteria here, you'll see that
fluency is part of the criteria. And what they are assessing is how much you can write or speak in a
limited time. But how much should you write or speak? Well, for the writing question, you have to
write at least 50 words. That's the minimum requirements. But I recommend if you want to get a
really good score, you should be aiming for anywhere between 75 to 100. Of course, if you can
write more, that's great. Write as much as you can. But I recommend 75 to 100 words important to
note that even though length or fluency in this case is important, your grammatical accuracy is
more important. So when you're writing, even if you're writing a lot, make sure your sentences are
grammatically correct. And for the speaking ones, I suggest you speak for at least 60 seconds. But
try to speak for the whole amount of time, you don't have to give a conclusion or anything like
that. If you can speak up to 90 seconds about the topic that will help you a lot to get a better
score. But for the speaking one, it's important that you stay on topic that's really important.
And I will talk more about that later, a lot of my students asked me how to write or speak for
longer. And of course, I have a useful tip for that, which is tip number three, which is to learn
a simple structure for the speaking and writing questions. So let me now show you a simple
structure you can use for these questions. And for the right about a topic question type.
A good structure would look like this, we have a topic sentence which outlines your main idea or
your main thesis of your paragraph. Then you have supporting ideas with examples, I would suggest
that you do around two of the supporting ideas. And then you finish off with a concluding
sentence. Okay, let me show you what I mean by giving you an example. My topic sentence is I
agree that employers should offer longer holidays to increase productivity. This is a topic
sentence. It shows exactly what my whole paragraph is going to be about. And I provided two
supporting ideas which backup my topic sentence and I gave examples as well. You can read these by
yourself. And then at the end I had a simple concluding sentence. Again, you can read this by
yourself. Tip number four is to stay on topic. So You need to write or speak about the topic you're
given. And this is really important. I mentioned earlier that this is a part of the scoring
criteria and the task relevance. So you are actually graded on how well you answer the
questions you're given. But more important than that, if your answer goes off topic too much, you
might actually get an email like this. If you can email like this, it says that it was evident that
you were reading out an answer. And here what I think Duolingo mean is that you weren't actually
reading an answer at the time. But instead, you memorize an answer, and you just repeated it
during the test. And you can't do that the Duolingo English test is not a test of your
memory. Instead, it's a test of your natural English ability. So if Duolingo think that you've
memorized an answer for writing or speaking, and then you just use that answer in your exam, you'll
probably get an uncertified test. And of course, you don't want that. So it's really important that
your answers stay close to the topic you're given. This will ensure that you receive a certified
result and on top of that, it will boost your production score if your answers stay on topic,
and they are well organized. Okay, tip number five is to learn some complex sentences mastering
complex sentences in English will help you boost your score on the Duolingo English test or any
other tests like the IELTS or TOEFL. Because if you can use these complex sentences, well, it
shows that you have a good grasp of English, even though you don't speak or write as much on the
Duolingo English test as the other exams, it's still important that you include at least one full
and correct complex sentence in each of your speaking and writing answers. Remember the scoring
criteria I showed you earlier, this one here, the first two points are about grammar. It's talking
about your grammatical accuracy and your grammatical complexity. So Duolingo are looking
for you to produce accurate sentences. So correct grammar and complex sentences as well. You want to
use a range of simple grammar and difficult grammar basically. And like I mentioned, to get
the highest score in production, you need to use these complex sentences Well, at least once or
maybe even twice and all of your speaking and writing answers. But I see a lot of my students
actually avoiding these complex sentences completely, because they're a little bit
difficult. And it's true, they are a little bit difficult to use, but I think you can do it. It's
not that hard if you learn them correctly. So let me show you some quick examples of complex
sentences here, and I'll show you how you can use them in your speaking and write in answers. So
what is a complex sentence? Well, a complex sentence is basically linking two ideas or two
simple sentences together. When making a complex sentence, you want to use one of these
subordinating conjunctions. That's a fancy word for these words here on the screen. Basically,
they link ideas together. So for example, let's say you have these two ideas. Many students like
playing sports, other students prefer making art. Now these are two simple sentences, but you want
to make him complex. So you would use one of these subordinating conjunctions. These two simple ideas
show a contrast. And these subordinating conjunctions are used to show contrast, we need to
use one of these subordinating clauses to link these ideas together. Although many students like
playing sports, other students prefer making art. The subordinating conjunction is although, and it
shows a contrast between my two ideas. Notice here I did use a comma. So when you're using a
subordinating conjunction at the start of your sentence, you need to use a comma before your
second idea. You could also put this subordinating conjunction in the middle of the sentence like
this, many students like playing sports, whereas other students prefer making art. If you put this
subordinating conjunction in the middle of the sentence, you do not need to use a comma. Okay,
now you need to practice some of these production questions. So I recommend you watch this video
here next. I'll see you there. Bye