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

Universities Myanmar students apply to with a DET score

Myanmar students who go abroad head for Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan in the region, and for Australia, the United States and the UK further afield. The DET works well for some of those and not at all for others, so here are published requirements you can plan against, opened on each university’s own page.

United States

• Arizona State University: 95 for most undergraduate majors, 100 for Nursing, 105 for higher-requirement Fulton Engineering programmes and 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.

Japan

• Temple University, Japan Campus (Tokyo): 110, from a test taken no earlier than two years before applying.
• Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Beppu): 110 for first-year applicants and 120 for transfer applicants.

United Kingdom and Ireland

• University of Sussex: 110 with at least 105 in each component for standard-level courses, 130 with at least 120 in each for advanced-level courses.
• University of Southampton: 120 overall for its B2 bands with subscore floors from Listening 105 upwards, 130 overall for the C1 bands.
• University College Dublin: from 90 with at least 80 in each subscore, rising with the level of the master’s.

Canada and Australia

• University of Toronto: 120 overall with 120 in Production for undergraduate entry (tests from 1 July 2024).
• UNSW College publishes Duolingo bands for admission to its pathway programmes, from the 80s for foundation entry up to 125–130 for the business diploma — none of which satisfies the student visa; see below.

Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia — read before you book

The closest destinations are where Myanmar applicants most often waste a test. Mahidol University International College lists TOEFL iBT, IELTS Academic and PTE Academic for overseas applicants and does not list the Duolingo English Test. Nanyang Technological University lists IELTS, TOEFL, PTE Academic, C1 Advanced, SAT and ACT and does not list the DET, while LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore lists the Duolingo English Test at 95 for diploma entry. Asia Pacific University (Malaysia) asks for IELTS, TOEFL, PTE or MUET and does not list the DET. Ask each programme in writing before you pay for any test.

Is the DET used inside Myanmar?

Yes, and more than in most of its neighbours, because the English-medium institutions serving Myanmar students were built for exactly this situation:

• Parami University (Yangon) lists the Duolingo English Proficiency Test at 120 as its recommended minimum, alongside TOEFL iBT 90, IELTS Academic 6.5 and PTE Academic 62; its FAQ confirms Duolingo is accepted and adds that applicants without a standard test score can sit Parami’s own proctored English exam.
• ASU Global Program – Myanmar, the pathway into Angelo State University run for Myanmar students, lists Duolingo 96 for direct admission alongside IELTS 6.0 and TOEFL iBT 69, with preparatory tracks for students below that.

Government universities admit through the matriculation exam, so the DET is not part of those applications. Where a scholarship or a foreign campus programme in Myanmar asks for an international certificate, get in writing whether a DET score counts and at what number.

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. Four routes matter to Myanmar applicants:

• Australia — Home Affairs accepts a fixed list of tests (IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge C1 Advanced, OET, LanguageCert Academic, CELPIP, Michigan English Test) taken at secure venues and states that it does not accept tests delivered completely online. If your student visa needs English evidence, the DET will not provide it, however many Australian providers accept it for admission.
• United Kingdom — GOV.UK lists four ways to prove English for a Student visa, and for degree-level study a licensed higher-education provider may assess your English itself, provided its assessment is equivalent to CEFR B2. That is how DET-based offers work. Below degree level you need an approved Secure English Language Test, and the DET is not one.
• Singapore, Japan and the United States — the ICA Student’s Pass, the Japanese student status of residence and the US student visa all rely on the institution’s admission decision and set no English test of their own.
• Canada — the study permit document list on canada.ca contains no English test; your designated learning institution decides which evidence it accepts.

If your shortlist mixes Australia with the US, Japan or Singapore, budget for two different tests before you pay for either.

Choosing your target score for the universities Myanmar students apply to

The DET reports an overall score on the 10–160 scale plus four subscores — Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production — and many universities set a floor in each subscore, which is where unprepared candidates are caught: an overall 120 with a Production of 95 fails a requirement the headline number appears to meet. Work backwards from the requirements on this page rather than aiming at a round number:

• 90–105 covers the ASU Global Program – Myanmar at 96, LASALLE diploma entry at 95, 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 Japan’s English-taught campuses sit (Temple Japan at 110, APU at 110 for first-year entry), where standard UK entry begins (Sussex at 110 with 105 in each component, Southampton at 120 overall with subscore floors) and where Parami’s recommended minimum lands (120).
• 120–130+ is selective and graduate territory: Toronto at 120 with 120 in Production, APU transfer entry at 120, Sussex advanced at 130 with 120 in each component.

Pick the highest requirement on your shortlist and plan a comfortable margin above it, because subscore floors — not the overall number — are what most often send an application back. Use the university score finder to check more institutions, or send us your university’s English-requirements page on WhatsApp and we will read it with you.

DET vs IELTS from Myanmar: the format comparison

Both exams test the same language in different shapes, and once acceptance is settled the choice comes down to format.

Use the DET everywhere your universities accept it — Parami, the ASU Global Program, most US and Japanese English-taught programmes, most UK degree courses, Ireland and Canada — and keep IELTS for the Australian student visa, for below-degree UK study and for Thai, Singaporean or Malaysian programmes that do not list the DET. One more practical difference: you may sit up to three certified DET attempts in any 30-day period, so a prepared retake is a realistic plan rather than a last resort.

Studying online from Myanmar without losing the live experience

Myanmar sits at UTC+6:30, four and a half hours ahead of Egypt in winter and three and a half in summer, so a class scheduled for the Egyptian afternoon lands in your evening — and if a session falls late, the same-day recording covers you.

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 where you are, you watch the recording, submit the same homework, receive the same personal Speaking and Writing corrections and sit the same full mock test before the 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 own weak question types.

All three include personal Speaking and Writing correction, a full mock test before the exam and WhatsApp support between sessions. Arabic-language support is available for Arabic speakers, but for students in Myanmar everything runs in English. Before you choose, open which Duolingo score do I need and the DET score converter.

Paying from Myanmar: read this before you plan

This is the one part of the process that is genuinely harder from Myanmar than from anywhere else in the region, so we will say it plainly.

• Cards issued by Myanmar banks are restricted for international use. Since the Central Bank of Myanmar’s directive of April 2022, international prepaid and credit cards issued to Myanmar citizens — Visa, Mastercard, JCB, UnionPay and the MPU co-brand cards — carry central-bank monthly ceilings on foreign-currency use, and banks report their foreign card activity to the CBM. Many Myanmar-issued cards are also unable to complete a foreign online payment at all, and the bank’s own terms add that any foreign-currency charge is converted to kyat at the bank’s rate on the day of conversion.
• Do not rely on a Myanmar card going through. If you have an international card that has already worked with a foreign online merchant, it may work here too. If you do not, or the payment is refused, that is normal and not a problem on our side.
• Message us on WhatsApp before you pay. We will walk you through the payment options that work for students in Myanmar, including paying with a card held by a relative or friend outside the country, and you will not lose your place in the course while it is sorted out.