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

Universities Malaysian students apply to with a DET score

Students from Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Ipoh and Kuching cluster around the same destinations every intake: Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Ireland, with Germany a growing option. Here are the published DET requirements we opened on the universities’ own pages.

United Kingdom

• University of Southampton: 120 overall with 105 Listening, 110 Reading, 110 Writing and 110 Speaking for its Band C courses, rising to 130 overall with higher subscores for Band G and above. Southampton states that the required scores must be met in each individual subscore.
• 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.
• Not every UK university takes it. Cardiff University states on its English-requirements page that it does not accept Duolingo, and the University of Birmingham’s postgraduate page does not list the Duolingo English Test at all.

United States

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

Canada and Ireland

• 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.
• 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.

Germany

• Constructor University (Bremen) lists a minimum of 110 for both undergraduate and graduate applicants. Many German public universities still ask for IELTS or TOEFL, so treat each programme separately.

Before you book, ask admissions in writing which overall and subscore minimums apply to your programme.

Is the DET used inside Malaysia?

We opened the English-requirements pages of the branch campuses and private universities Malaysian students ask about most, and the honest answer is that the DET is not yet part of the local picture:

• Monash University Malaysia‘s entry-requirements page refers to English proficiency tests in general and does not list the Duolingo English Test.
• University of Nottingham‘s English-requirements page names IELTS, PTE and TOEFL and does not list the Duolingo English Test.
• Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak lists IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, MUET and school qualifications; it does not list the Duolingo English Test.
• Heriot-Watt University Malaysia‘s English-requirements document names IELTS, TOEFL, PTE Academic and Cambridge exams and does not list the Duolingo English Test.
• Asia Pacific University (APU) asks international applicants for IELTS, TOEFL, PTE or MUET and does not list the Duolingo English Test.

For international students coming to Malaysia the government side matters too: Education Malaysia Global Services lists MUET, IELTS, TOEFL iBT, TOEFL Essentials, PTE Academic, Cambridge English exams, Linguaskill, OET and ELS CIEP for the student pass application, and the Duolingo English Test is not on that list. So for a Malaysian student, the DET is an outbound tool: use it for the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and the European institutions that publish a band, and keep MUET or IELTS for anything local.

Before you book: the visa rules that decide your test

A DET score can win an offer and still be the wrong document for the visa. Three routes decide it for Malaysians:

• Australia — the biggest Malaysian destination and the clearest no. The Department of Home Affairs accepts a fixed list of tests taken at secure testing locations and states that it does not accept evidence from English tests delivered completely online. The DET will not satisfy the subclass 500 English requirement, whatever the university says about admission.
• United Kingdom — for degree-level study, GOV.UK says your Higher Education Provider can assess your English itself, as long as the level is equivalent to CEFR B2; that 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, and many accept the DET.

If your shortlist mixes Australia with the UK or North America, plan for two different tests before you pay for either.

Choosing your target score for the universities Malaysian 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 for each subscore, which is where confident English speakers get caught: an overall 125 with a Production of 110 fails Toronto’s requirement even though the headline number clears it.

Work backwards from the requirements on this page:

• 90–105 covers Arizona State at 95, Northeastern’s professional-studies programmes at 105 and University College Dublin from 90 with 80 in each subscore.
• 110–120 is where Sussex standard entry (110 with 105 each), Constructor University (110) 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, not just the overall. Send us your university’s English-requirements page on WhatsApp and we will read it with you, or use the university finder and the score converter to map your IELTS or MUET expectations onto the DET scale.

DET vs IELTS from Malaysia: the format comparison

Most Malaysian students have sat MUET and know IELTS by reputation. The DET tests the same language in a different shape.

Strong readers often clear the early items and then lose Production marks on the writing and speaking tasks because nobody taught them how those are graded. Use the DET everywhere your universities accept it; keep IELTS for Australia and for any UK route below degree level.

Studying online from Malaysia without losing the live experience

Malaysia sits at UTC+8, five hours ahead of Egypt, so a live class scheduled for another region can land in your evening or late night. That is the problem a structured course with recordings solves.

Every Teachero course runs as live online classes taught in English by highly qualified, certified instructors, with lesson recordings uploaded the same day. If a session lands at an awkward hour in Kuala Lumpur, you watch the recording, submit the same homework, receive the same personal Speaking and Writing correction and sit the same full mock test before your exam as everyone else.

• 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.

All of them include WhatsApp support between sessions. Malaysia is part of our East and Southeast Asia coverage; message us on WhatsApp for the current round.

Paying by card from Malaysia

Card payment by Visa or Mastercard issued by a Malaysian bank works. Two things are worth doing before you try:

• Switch on overseas and online transactions. Most Malaysian banks keep card-not-present and overseas use off by default and let you enable it in the banking app; do that first, and keep the phone that receives the one-time code next to you.
• Expect a first-charge check. A first payment to a merchant abroad is sometimes held by the bank’s fraud filter. If the card is declined, the bank app or a call usually clears it in minutes.

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