Users can't 'fail' in the traditional sense - universities simply decide upon a cut score. The Duolingo test is adaptive, taking just 45 minutes to administer, far less than the three to four hours of traditional exams - Duolingo said the test ends when its “grading engine has reached a confidence threshold in the test taker’s score.” After she saw the new test, she said, she realized “I had never seen such an elegant solution to the challenges that international students face.” Louis, often with students aspiring to attend from abroad. Unlike traditional tests, which often require traveling to testing centers staffed with live proctors, the new test can be administered anytime and anywhere a student can find reliable internet access and a webcam-enabled computer.įor many, that alleviates the need to take an overnight bus, train or plane ride to a major city, said Jen Dewar, Duolingo’s head of strategy.ĭewar spent 17 years working in admissions at Duke University and Washington University in St.

A new, ultra-low-cost English skills test is crashing the already crowded party of higher ed language assessment, offering prospective international students the ability to demonstrate their English skills from virtually anywhere with an internet connection.īut will colleges take its AI-enabled results seriously?ĭeveloped by the makers of a free, gamelike language-learning smartphone app, the Duolingo English Test costs just $49 - as little as one-fifth the price of the widely used Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and its closest competitor, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), used by many British, Canadian and Australian universities, among others.

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