Reading is the most mechanically scored part of the DET: almost everything is right or wrong, decided by an exact match. That makes it the most predictable subscore, and the one where careless spelling costs real points rather than style marks.
Every DET number — the overall score and all eight subscores — sits on the same 10 to 160 scale in steps of five. Your overall score is the average of the four individual subscores, so each of Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking carries a quarter of the total.
| DET score | CEFR level | User | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-55 | A1 / A2 | Basic user | Can handle very simple, predictable exchanges. Below the level almost any degree programme asks for. |
| 60-95 | B1 | Independent user | Can deal with familiar matters and produce connected text on everyday topics. Enough for some foundation and pathway programmes. |
| 100-125 | B2 | Independent user | Can follow a technical discussion in their field and argue a position. The band most undergraduate admissions sit in. |
| 130-150 | C1 | Proficient user | Can use English flexibly for academic and professional purposes. What competitive and postgraduate programmes ask for. |
| 155-160 | C2 | Proficient user | Can handle anything read or heard with ease and express fine shades of meaning. Rare, and above what any institution requires. |
The integrated subscores are simple averages, rounded to the nearest five: Literacy is Reading and Writing, Comprehension is Reading and Listening, Conversation is Speaking and Listening, Production is Speaking and Writing. Nothing new is measured to produce them.
| Question type | Scored as | What counts as wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Read and Select | Right or wrong, one point per word | Choosing Yes for an invented word, or No for a real one. Running out of the five seconds also counts as wrong. |
| Fill in the Blanks | Right or wrong, one point per sentence | Any spelling that is not the exact target word. A correct word spelt wrongly scores zero. |
| Read and Complete | Right or wrong, one point per damaged word | Same rule, word by word. Getting four of five words in a passage earns four points, not a partial fifth. |
| Interactive Reading: Complete the Sentences | Right or wrong, per blank | A wrong option. Five to ten blanks per question. |
| Interactive Reading: Complete the Passage | Right or wrong | A sentence that does not bridge the two halves of the text. |
| Interactive Reading: Highlight the Answer | 0 to 1 scale | Nothing, entirely. A highlight that overlaps the correct span earns partial credit; too much highlighted earns less than an exact one. |
| Interactive Reading: Identify the Idea | Right or wrong | Choosing an option that describes only part of the text. |
| Interactive Reading: Title the Passage | Right or wrong | A title that fits a detail rather than the whole passage. |
Highlight the Answer is the only reading item with partial credit. Everywhere else in Reading, close is worth the same as absent, which is why a spelling habit is worth more here than a reading strategy.
Reading is adaptive, so items are not worth the same amount. The engine tracks how hard each item is, and a correct answer on a difficult item moves your estimate further than a correct answer on an easy one. This has three practical consequences.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer beyond losing that item, and no bonus for finishing early. Never leave a blank you could have guessed.
| Reading subscore | Roughly what it reflects | What to work on next |
|---|---|---|
| Below 90 | A vocabulary that runs out on ordinary academic text. Read and Select is mostly guesswork. | Frequency lists and word families, twenty minutes a day. Nothing else moves this band as fast. |
| 90-110 | Reliable on everyday English, hesitant on abstract nouns and academic verbs. | Read and Complete under the real three-minute clock, plus a running misspelling list. |
| 115-130 | Comfortable at speed, losing points to spelling and to the last Interactive Reading set. | Timing. Split the seven or eight minutes across all six steps before you start reading. |
| 135+ | Recognises and rebuilds unfamiliar words from context reliably. | Little. At this level, effort is better spent on the Production subscore. |
Reading feeds both Literacy and Comprehension, so it is the single subscore with the widest effect on the score report.
Duolingo publishes its own concordance with IELTS and TOEFL iBT, and this is the table admissions offices use when they translate an existing requirement into a DET minimum.
| DET | IELTS band | TOEFL iBT |
|---|---|---|
| 160 | 8.5-9 | 120 |
| 155 | 8 | 119 |
| 150 | 8 | 117-118 |
| 145 | 7.5 | 113-116 |
| 140 | 7.5 | 109-112 |
| 135 | 7 | 104-108 |
| 130 | 7 | 98-103 |
| 125 | 6.5 | 93-97 |
| 120 | 6.5 | 87-92 |
| 115 | 6 | 82-86 |
| 110 | 6 | 76-81 |
| 105 | 6 | 70-75 |
| 100 | 5.5 | 65-69 |
| 95 | 5.5 | 59-64 |
| 90 | 5 | 53-58 |
| 85 | 5 | 47-52 |
| 80 | 5 | 41-46 |
| 75 | 4.5 | 35-40 |
| 70 | 4.5 | 30-34 |
| 65 | 4.5 | 24-29 |
| 10-60 | 0-4 | 0-23 |
Written by Kirill O'Nayd
English test expert and educator at TestSucceed, where he builds the Duolingo English Test practice tasks and mock tests and has spent years taking apart how computer-adaptive, AI-graded exams award their points. See all TestSucceed preparation materials.