DET Scoring: The 10–160 Scale & Subscores Explained

The big picture

• DET scoring (10–160)
  • 4 skill subscores — Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening
  • Overall — Average of the 4 skills, rounded to nearest 5
  • Integrated subscores — Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation, Production
  • Check minimums — Universities may set overall AND subscore floors

10–160, built from four skills

Your overall DET score runs 10–160 in 5-point steps and is the average of four Individual Subscores — Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening — rounded to the nearest 5. So each skill pulls the overall equally.

Integrated subscores — skills in pairs

Alongside the four skills, the DET reports four Integrated Subscores, each an average of two skills: Literacy (Reading + Writing), Comprehension (Reading + Listening), Conversation (Listening + Speaking) and Production (Speaking + Writing). Some programmes look at these.

Check the university's exact requirement

Universities set their own required DET score, and many list both an overall minimum AND minimum subscores. A strong overall with one weak skill can still miss a subscore floor — so read the full requirement, not just the headline number.

Fast, and free to retake

DET results arrive in about 48 hours, and you can take it again (Duolingo allows multiple attempts, with limits per period) — so a below-target score isn't the end. Use your subscores to see exactly which skill to push before retaking.

Test yourself before you move on

Re-reading a note feels like learning and produces almost none. The retrieval below is what actually builds the memory, so cover the map above and answer these from memory — out loud or written down, not in your head, because "I know this" is the feeling that fails under exam pressure.

1. Without looking: what is 4 skill subscores, and how does it connect to DET scoring (10–160)?
2. Without looking: what is Overall, and how does it connect to DET scoring (10–160)?
3. Without looking: what is Integrated subscores, and how does it connect to DET scoring (10–160)?
4. Without looking: what is Check minimums, and how does it connect to DET scoring (10–160)?

Anything you could not produce is the part of this note you have not learned yet — regardless of how familiar it felt while reading. Re-read only that node, then re-test the whole set. Testing the whole set matters: recalling one idea in isolation is easier than recalling it among 4 competing ones, which is the situation the exam actually puts you in.

When to come back to this note

Spacing is not a scheduling detail, it is the mechanism. Meeting this material again just as it starts to fade forces the effortful retrieval that consolidates it, which is why a note reviewed four times across three weeks outlasts the same note read four times in one evening. The built-in scheduler resurfaces these questions at widening intervals for exactly that reason — the prompt arriving when you feel you have half-forgotten is the system working, not failing.

A practical rhythm for DET scoring (10–160): today, again tomorrow, then after three days, then after a week. If you fail a review, shorten the next interval rather than re-reading the note end to end — the failure identifies the gap precisely, and re-reading everything wastes the diagnosis.

Then apply it under pressure. Knowing a concept in isolation and using it in a timed paper are different skills, and only the second is examined. There are 150 free DUOLINGO practice tests here covering 1,740 questions — counted from the test files, not estimated. Take a full timed DUOLINGO mock →