What the four subscores are
Your overall score is on a 10–160 scale, and so is every subscore. There are four of them, and each is an average of two underlying skills:
| Subscore | It averages… | So it is about… |
|---|---|---|
| Literacy | Reading + Writing | Understanding and producing written language |
| Comprehension | Reading + Listening | Understanding language, spoken and written |
| Conversation | Speaking + Listening | Understanding and producing spoken language |
| Production | Speaking + Writing | Producing language, spoken and written |
Duolingo gives the arithmetic directly: if you scored 110 in reading and 120 in writing, your Literacy subscore is (110 + 120) ÷ 2 = 115.
Each skill appears in exactly two subscores
This is the useful part, and it falls straight out of the definitions above. There are four skills, four subscores, and every skill is used in two of them:
| Skill | Appears in… |
|---|---|
| Reading | Literacy, Comprehension |
| Writing | Literacy, Production |
| Speaking | Conversation, Production |
| Listening | Comprehension, Conversation |
So one weak skill does not lower one subscore. It lowers exactly two — and which two depends entirely on which skill it is. That gives you a way to diagnose yourself.
Read the pattern backwards
Look at which two of your subscores are lowest. The pair identifies the skill.
| If these two are your lowest… | The skill to fix is… |
|---|---|
| Literacy and Comprehension | Reading (it is the only skill in both) |
| Literacy and Production | Writing |
| Conversation and Production | Speaking |
| Comprehension and Conversation | Listening |
If three or four subscores are low together, the pattern will not isolate cleanly — that usually means two skills are weak, or your overall level is simply the constraint.
A worked example
Suppose your report says:
- Literacy 125
- Comprehension 125
- Conversation 100
- Production 100
Conversation and Production are the low pair. The only skill in both is Speaking. Reading, writing and listening are all clearly fine — they are holding up the other two subscores.
So there is no point revising vocabulary lists or doing more reading practice. Every hour should go into speaking, and both weak subscores will rise together.
If the answer is speaking (it often is)
Speaking is the most common weak skill, for an obvious reason: it is the only one most learners never practise alone. Reading, listening and even writing can all be done quietly with a book or a screen. Speaking feels like it needs another person, so it gets skipped.
It does not need another person. It needs a recording and honest feedback. Record a one-minute answer, listen back, and check the things the DET's spoken tasks are actually built on — whether you finish your words, whether you hesitate inside phrases or between them, and whether a listener could follow you without effort.
See how to practise speaking alone and how to stop hesitating.
Where to go next
The scale and the subscore definitions on this page reflect Duolingo's official scoring documentation as of July 2026. Always confirm the current scoring on the official site before you test.
Frequently asked questions
What are the four Duolingo English Test subscores?
Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production, each reported on the same 10 to 160 scale as your overall score. Each is an average of two underlying skills: Literacy averages reading and writing, Comprehension averages reading and listening, Conversation averages speaking and listening, and Production averages speaking and writing.
How do I know which skill is holding my DET score down?
Find your two lowest subscores and see which skill they share, because every skill appears in exactly two of them. Low Conversation and Production means speaking. Low Literacy and Production means writing. Low Literacy and Comprehension means reading. Low Comprehension and Conversation means listening.
How is a DET subscore calculated?
It is the average of the two skills it covers. Duolingo's own example: if you scored 110 in reading and 120 in writing, your Literacy subscore is (110 + 120) divided by 2, which is 115.
Why does fixing one skill raise two subscores?
Because each skill is used in exactly two of the four subscores. Improving your speaking raises both Conversation and Production, and lifts your overall as well. That is why identifying the shared skill is worth more than working on whichever subscore you happened to notice first.