Duolingo English Test Course for Students in Cameroon — Online with Certified Instructors

Universities Cameroonian students apply to with a DET score

France, Canada and Germany are the three largest destinations for Cameroonian students, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Morocco, South Africa and China behind them. French-taught programmes do not need the DET at all; the requirements below are for the English-taught routes, taken from each university’s own page.

Canada

• University of Toronto: 120 overall with 120 in Production for tests taken on or after 1 July 2024.
• University of British Columbia: 125 overall, with 115 Reading, 115 Listening, 120 Writing and 120 Speaking.
• Quebec’s French-taught universities set French requirements instead; their English-taught programmes publish their own English lists, so check each page.

Germany

• Constructor University (Bremen) lists 110 for graduate entry. Many public universities still ask for IELTS or TOEFL for English-taught programmes, so the programme page is the only reliable source.

United States

• Arizona State University: 95 for most undergraduate majors, 100 for Nursing, 105 for higher-requirement engineering programmes and 120 for the Cronkite journalism school.
• Northeastern University (College of Professional Studies): 105 for graduate and bachelor’s-completion programmes, 120 for doctoral programmes.

United Kingdom and Ireland

• University of Hertfordshire: 120 overall with no less than 95 in each band for IELTS-6.5 courses, 105 with 95 for IELTS-6.0 courses.
• University of Southampton: 120 overall for its B2 bands with subscore floors from 105, 130 overall for C1 bands.
• Trinity College Dublin: 120 with 100 in each subscore for standard entry, 130 with 110 for higher entry.
• University College Dublin: 90 with 80 in each subscore as the standard requirement, rising to 100/90, 110/100 and 120/110 by programme.

Italy

• Politecnico di Milano‘s list of recognised external English certificates includes TOEFL, TOEIC, Cambridge and Trinity College London but does not list the Duolingo English Test.

Before you pay for any test, ask admissions in writing whether the Duolingo English Test is accepted for your exact programme and at what overall and subscore minimums. Our university finder helps you build the shortlist.

Is the DET used inside Cameroon?

Cameroonian universities admit on the Baccalauréat or the GCE Advanced Level, and their bilingual system means no international English certificate is asked of a local applicant. We could not find a Cameroonian university that lists the Duolingo English Test on its admissions pages, so treat the DET as an outbound document. The one domestic exception is the growing number of scholarships and foreign-university partnerships that want a recognised English certificate from francophone applicants — if that is your case, get the accepted tests and the minimum score in writing before you book.

Before you book: the visa rules that decide your test

Cameroonian applicants face three different immigration desks, and none of them treats the DET the same way:

• Canada — the Student Direct Stream ended in November 2024, so every applicant uses the regular study permit. The IRCC eligibility page lists no language test of its own; the English or French evidence your designated learning institution accepts is what counts. Canada has tightened its settings for most international students since 2024 while continuing to encourage francophone applicants, which makes Cameroon’s bilingual profile an asset — but read the current IRCC page before you plan.
• United Kingdom — the DET is not a Secure English Language Test. gov.uk states that at degree level and above your Higher Education Provider can assess your English itself, provided it is equivalent to CEFR B2. Below degree level you need a SELT such as IELTS for UKVI.
• Australia — Home Affairs accepts only IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge C1 Advanced, OET, LanguageCert Academic, CELPIP and the Michigan English Test, and states that it does not accept evidence from tests delivered completely online. The DET will not meet the subclass 500 requirement.

France and Belgium set no English test for the student visa; the requirement, if any, comes from the programme itself.

Choosing your target score for the universities Cameroonian students apply to

The DET reports an overall score on the 10–160 scale in steps of five and four subscores — Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production. Universities publish an overall minimum and, very often, a floor per subscore. The floor is what catches francophone candidates whose reading is strong and whose speaking is hesitant: a 120 overall with a 100 in Production fails Toronto’s requirement outright.

• 90–105: UCD’s standard band (90 with 80 each), Arizona State at 95, Hertfordshire’s 6.0 band at 105 with 95 in each band, Northeastern’s professional programmes at 105.
• 110–125: Constructor University at 110, Hertfordshire’s 6.5 band at 120 with 95, Southampton’s B2 bands at 120 — the range most UK and German English-taught programmes occupy.
• 120–130+: Toronto at 120 with 120 in Production, UBC at 125 with four subscore floors, Trinity at 120/100 and 130/110, Southampton’s C1 bands at 130.

Plan for the highest requirement on your list with a margin above it. Use the score converter when a university quotes IELTS or TOEFL instead, read which Duolingo score you need, or send us the requirements page on WhatsApp.

DET vs IELTS from Cameroon: the format comparison

Both exams measure the same English in different shapes. Once you know which of your universities accept which test, the decision is about format.

The practical rule for a student in Cameroon: use the DET everywhere your universities accept it, and keep IELTS for the visa routes that demand a Secure English Language Test. One more useful detail: Duolingo allows up to three certified tests in any 30-day period, so a prepared retake is a real option rather than a panic.

For francophone students there is a second consideration: the DET’s Speaking and Writing tasks are open-ended, so the English you can produce matters more than the English you can recognise. That is what a course is for.

Studying online from Cameroon without losing the live experience

Cameroon runs on West Africa Time, UTC+1, one hour behind Egypt, so live rounds normally fall in your afternoon or early evening. Every Teachero course runs as live online classes taught in English by highly qualified, certified instructors, and every lesson recording is uploaded the same day, so a session that lands at an awkward hour in Cameroon is not lost: you watch it, submit the same work and receive the same corrections as everyone else.

• Standard course — more days, fewer hours per day.
• Intensive course — fewer days, more hours per day, for when the exam is close.
• Private 1-on-1 course — tailored to the question types that hold your score back.

All three include personal Speaking and Writing correction, a full mock test before the exam and WhatsApp support between sessions. Arabic-language support exists for Arabic speakers, but for students in Cameroon everything runs in English, which is the language you will be tested in. Message us on WhatsApp with your target university and deadline and we will suggest which format fits.

Cameroon is part of our Africa hub. Classes are in English; if you would like to discuss your plan in French first, write to us on WhatsApp and we will find a way.

Paying by card from Cameroon

Visa and Mastercard cards issued by Cameroonian banks can pay for the course, but the CEMAC zone has its own rules that you should know before trying:

• Activation for use outside CEMAC. Under the BEAC’s foreign-exchange regulation, banks such as Afriland First Bank require you to ask for your card to be enabled for payments outside the zone, and online purchases outside CEMAC are capped per month. Ask your account manager to activate international online use and confirm the ceiling covers the payment.
• Keep the paperwork. The same regulation lets the bank ask for justification of foreign spending, so keep your invoice from us.
• Virtual and prepaid cards from Cameroonian banks and mobile-money providers are increasingly used for exactly this kind of payment; check that yours is enabled for international merchants.

If the card is refused, message us on WhatsApp and we will arrange another way to pay.