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STANDALONE MARKETING PLAY / FIRST VALUE
Call the placement test a level check
When learners who already know some of the subject are offered the optional placement test, label it as checking their level rather than as a test. Duolingo doubled the tests taken in Japan.
2× placement testsPlacement tests taken by new English learners in Japan after Duolingo reworded “take a placement test” to “check your English level” (both options' copy changed). Company-reported, no base, period or retention figure.
2× placement testsafter renaming it a level check
Product screens: Duolingo via App Fuel ↗. Screens illustrate the product; the number is sourced in the evidence below.
SOURCED
Built from published experiments and company reports across several products. Nobody has checked the screens on a dated day, so read each number with the caveat printed beside it.
THE PLAY
One move, with enough context to use it well.
When learners who already know some of the subject are offered the optional placement test, label it as checking their level rather than as a test. Duolingo doubled the tests taken in Japan.
The word “test” can scare people off a shortcut that would help them. Duolingo's research in Japan found learners with prior English were reluctant to take a placement test — one said the word was scary — so they started from the beginning and churned because it was too easy (Zan Gilani and Carrie Wang, Duolingo).
This play also appears inside the Duolingo playbook. You can still use it independently.
THE EVIDENCE
2 sourcesWhat the research does, and does not, establish.
Rewording the placement option doubled placement tests taken in Japan.
COMPANY-REPORTEDWhat it does not show The post says the change "doubled placement tests taken"; "doubled" may be rounded. Sample size, baseline, period, significance and randomization are not given; the post calls it an experiment. Whether the retention gain applies to all new learners or only to those who took the test is not stated.
Lessons from Asia: Turning local research into global experiments Gilani and Wang · 2021
The global experiment improved placement completion and retention.
COMPANY-REPORTEDWhat it does not show No figures, sample size, period, languages or metric definitions are given. The wording used outside Japan is not documented; the Chinese-course screenshot is labeled translated and adapted.
Lessons from Asia: Turning local research into global experiments Gilani and Wang · 2021
What the evidence as a whole does not establish
- All outcome evidence is one company's blog paragraph, with no sample size, baseline, period, retention definition or retention figure.
BORROW WITH INTENTION
A good fit starts with good judgment.
Where it can help
- Products with an optional placement or skill check that lets people skip ahead
- Audiences where some new users already know part of the subject
- Markets where research shows the word “test” deters people
Use the play for this decision alone, or combine it with an existing product strategy after checking for conflicts.
Where to be careful
- Where the placement cannot be undone, more people taking it could mean more placed above their level with no way back.
- Tested in language learning only; whether “test” deters users elsewhere is unproven.
HOW THIS GOES WRONG
Ways a correct-looking build still does harm.
A lower-stakes framing may lower the effort people put into the check, and so its accuracy.
Counting tests taken without checking whether placements were right.
THE BUILD RECORD
This page helps you decide. The record helps you build.
In the record, not on this page
- The screen spec: the mechanism, what goes on screen, and what it should change
- 2 findings in full, with every number the source gives
- 3 ways to adapt it to your product
Plus everything above, as plain text for your coding agent, with a short instruction on top: check the fit, say what the evidence doesn’t support, and adapt it rather than copy it. Paste it and you get an answer, no prompt to write.
One Duolingo blog post on a Japan experiment and a global follow-up · evidence reviewed 25 September 2026.
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