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

Universities Kazakh students apply to with a DET score

Students from Almaty, Astana, Shymkent, Karaganda and Aktobe target the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Ireland most often, with Italy, Turkey and South Korea as alternatives. Here are the DET requirements we opened on the universities’ own pages.

United States

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

United Kingdom and Ireland

• University of Sussex: 110 with at least 105 in each component for standard entry, 130 with at least 120 in each component for advanced entry.
• University of Southampton: 120 overall with subscore floors of 105 Listening, 110 Reading, 110 Writing and 110 Speaking for Band C courses, and 130 overall for Band G and above, with every subscore floor applied individually.
• Trinity College Dublin: 120 with 100 in every subscore for standard entry, 130 with 110 for higher entry.
• University College Dublin: from 90 with at least 80 in each subscore, with taught master’s options at 100 and 110 and above.

Canada

• University of Toronto: 120 overall with 120 in Production for undergraduate entry, for tests taken from 1 July 2024.
• University of British Columbia: 125 overall, with 115 Reading, 115 Listening, 120 Writing and 120 Speaking.

Germany and Italy

• Constructor University (Bremen): 110 for both undergraduate and graduate applicants.
• Bocconi University (Milan): 110 on the Duolingo English Test for its MSc and MA programmes. Bocconi’s undergraduate page, by contrast, does not list the Duolingo English Test — the same university, two different answers.

Turkey: check before you assume

The international-admissions pages of Koç University, Bilkent University and Sabancı University do not list the Duolingo English Test; they name TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic or their own proficiency exams. Get a written answer from any Turkish university before you book.

Is the DET used inside Kazakhstan — and what about Bolashak?

We opened the admissions pages of the universities Kazakh students ask about most:

• KIMEP University publishes a Duolingo table: 95 or above, with at least 90 in each section, places you directly into academic study at the B2 level; lower results place you in its English foundation levels (94 with at least 80 in each section for Provisional A, 60–94 with at least 75 in each section for Provisional B).
• Almaty Management University (AlmaU) lists Duolingo English Test – 80 among the certificates accepted for its PhD programmes.
• Maqsut Narikbayev University lists Duolingo among the accepted certificates for international applicants but publishes no score.
• Nazarbayev University‘s current admissions page for foundation and undergraduate entry names IELTS and TOEFL and does not list the Duolingo English Test. Astana IT University‘s how-to-apply page does not list it either.

Bolashak is the other question. The scholarship’s own conditions page sets the English minimums as IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL 46, or a diploma proving previous study in English, and does not list the Duolingo English Test. If Bolashak is your funding route, plan for IELTS or TOEFL for the scholarship file even if your university accepts the DET for admission.

Before you book: the visa rules that decide your test

A DET score can win you an offer and still be the wrong document for the visa. Three routes matter to Kazakh applicants:

• United Kingdom — GOV.UK states that for degree-level study your Higher Education Provider can assess your English itself at a level equivalent to CEFR B2, which is how DET-based offers turn into a CAS. The DET is not on the Home Office list of Secure English Language Tests, so below degree level you need a SELT such as IELTS for UKVI.
• Canada — IRCC’s study-permit document list does not include a language test; your designated learning institution decides which English evidence it accepts.
• Australia — the Department of Home Affairs accepts a fixed list of tests and states that it does not accept English tests delivered completely online. The DET will not satisfy the subclass 500 requirement.

The United States has no government English test for the F-1 visa, so the university’s requirement is the only one that counts.

Choosing your target score for the universities Kazakh students apply to

The DET reports an overall score on the 10–160 scale in steps of five, plus four subscores — Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production. Universities publish a minimum overall score, and many publish a minimum in each subscore too. KIMEP’s table is a good example of how strict that can be: 95 overall is not enough on its own; every section must be at least 90.

• 80–105 covers AlmaU’s PhD line at 80, University College Dublin from 90 with 80 in each subscore, Arizona State at 95, KIMEP’s direct entry at 95 with 90 in each section and Northeastern’s professional-studies programmes at 105.
• 110–120 is where Constructor University and Bocconi’s master’s programmes (110), Sussex standard entry (110 with 105 each) and Southampton’s Band C (120 with subscore floors) sit.
• 120–130+ is selective and graduate territory: Toronto at 120 with 120 in Production, UBC at 125 with subscore floors, Trinity at 120 with 100 in every subscore, Sussex advanced entry at 130 with 120 in each component.

Pick the highest requirement on your shortlist and plan a comfortable margin above it in every subscore. Send us your university’s English-requirements page on WhatsApp and we will read it with you, or start with the university finder and the score converter if you only know your IELTS band.

DET vs IELTS from Kazakhstan: the format comparison

IELTS is the default in Kazakhstan — Bolashak asks for it and every school knows it — so the comparison matters.

Use the DET everywhere your universities accept it — KIMEP, the US, the UK and Irish universities above, Constructor, Bocconi’s master’s programmes — and keep IELTS for Bolashak, Australia and UK routes below degree level.

Studying online from Kazakhstan without losing the live experience

Kazakhstan now runs on a single time zone, UTC+5, three hours ahead of Egypt, so most live sessions land in your afternoon or evening. When one does not, the recording covers it.

Every Teachero course runs as live online classes taught in English by highly qualified, certified instructors, with lesson recordings uploaded the same day. You submit the same homework, receive the same personal Speaking and Writing correction and sit the same full mock test before the exam as everyone else, with WhatsApp support between sessions.

• Standard course — more days, fewer hours per day.
• Intensive course — fewer days, more hours per day, when the test is close.
• Private 1-on-1 course — tailored around your weak question types.

Message us on WhatsApp for the current round, or see how the DET is used in other countries on our worldwide page.

Paying by card from Kazakhstan

Card payment by Visa or Mastercard issued by a Kazakh bank works, and Kazakh banking apps make the two checks easy:

• Confirm that online and foreign-merchant payments are enabled for the card you plan to use, and that its limit for such payments is not set to zero.
• Keep the phone that receives the confirmation code next to you. A first payment to a merchant abroad is sometimes held by the bank’s fraud check; confirming it in the app usually releases it within minutes.

If a card still will not go through, message us on WhatsApp and we will send the other options.