DET Score Report Explained: Overall Score vs Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking

Your DET score report contains more information than one overall number.

The overall Duolingo English Test score runs from 10 to 160. The report also includes individual Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking subscores, plus integrated subscores such as Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation, and Production.

Use the report in this order:

1. Check the exact requirement

Write down the overall score and any subscore requirements for your program. Do not rely on a general university-wide number.

2. Find a relative weakness

Compare your four individual skills. A lower score is a signal to investigate, not an automatic instruction to practise everything in that skill.

3. Connect the weakness to tasks

For example, a listening problem might come from weak-word recognition in Listen and Type, losing the conversation structure in Interactive Listening, or incomplete spoken responses.

4. Review repeated errors

Count patterns such as missed function words, unfinished answers, weak examples, or unstable verb tense.

The best study plan responds to repeated causes, not just the lowest label on the score report.

Which subscore are you trying to improve?