Don't like new format! Feels like starting from the beginning, no test out, what did you do???

April 7, 2018



They destroyed Duolingo

April 7, 2018


Unfortunately, the recent change to the 'CROWN' system, is basically a form of job security for a bunch of programmers. Many online activities have been affected by programmers doing either what they are told to do , or what might make them look good. The concerns of learners at Duolingo as well as other language groups like Memrise have also been greatly affected by arbitrary decisions that often have not been received warmly. At Duolingo, perhaps the best we can hope for now is that our concerns are at least looked at, and the new system is modified. If learning languages with any system loses the sense of lightness and fun it becomes a chore and no longer worth pursuing. With several comments - I have now really said all that I dare. Time for others to really say how they feel about this new 'CROWN' system.


Thanks for sharing your prospective Gustav46. That makes more sense than what all the shills keep trying to sell as a major improvement. It kind of reminds me of when windows introduced 8, and everyone sales person I spoke to told me in the most arrogant and condescending manor possible, to get over it and deal with it. Then low and behold, no one on the planet liked windows 8 and microsoft had to eat it.


Je suis français et j'apprends l'anglais depuis un an avec duolingo. Mon fluency score était de 77 %, niveau 25 et 51000 XP. J'étais content de mon apprentissage et je faisais des progrès. Mais le nouveau système des couronnes est complément nul. Pour retrouver un arbre doré, il faut refaire les exercices basiques encore et encore !!!!!!!!! Pour rien !!!!! Ceci n'est qu'une perte de temps inutile et c'est très démotivant, cela va à l'encontre du but recherché par Duolingo qui est de motiver les étudiants. Pour les utilisateurs avancés, il faudrait mettre en place un système pour valider l'expérience déjà acquise et pour éviter de recommencer l'apprentissage au début ! Si vous ne faites pas cela, je vais QUITTER Duolingo !!!!!!!! I WILL LEAVE !!!!!!!


Je suis complètement d'accord avec "Pour les utilisateurs avancés, il faudrait mettre en place un système pour valider l'expérience déjà acquise et pour éviter de recommencer l'apprentissage au début."


Congratulations on your 77%. You are our golden tree yourself. Duolingo's imaging techniques are really trying to present the impossible. I think the idea was to include more difficult material and use crown levels up to 5. I did find the old system was far from perfect. If I was busy, I could do one exercise correctly every day and still see my fluency going down. I am not sure that this issue has been tackled, as there is a need to monitor maintenance of fluency. Bon courage. Vous pouvez être fier. Vous apprendrez d'avantage avec les couronnes.

Je pensais que vous étiez une fille. En anglais, 'Dominique' est un nom de fille.

Ma femme veut voyager en Italie. Je vais continuer à apprendre la langue avec Duolingo.


J'étais aussi à 77% ! J'ai plus du tout envie de continuer maintenant.


I agree absolutely with Dominique 2222. I was on level 25 in French with 72% fluency score and I had some sense of achievement and motivation. Now I find myself having to do some of the most basic exercises again. It was such a relief to me, months ago, when my tree was finally gold and I could move on to the variety of the Strengthening exercises where I rarely made more than a two or three mistakes in a 10XP exercise and often none at all.

Now, to get any sense of progress, I am forced to go back to things I know really well and am faced with the same frustrations as I had when turning the tree gold. Repetition does help learning, but it can also cause careless mistakes because it becomes so tedious and mindless. Is it not possible to give the opportunity for the more proficient students to test out - at least on the early skills - to avoid some of this? I know it will help me to go over some of the more difficult skills, such as the subjunctives, but PLEASE not the rudimentary things.


Even teaching language courses allow you to test out so you are working in your appropriate level and not wasting your time. Does Duolingo have any teaching language educators on staff? Pretty basic stuff...


The crown level format takes so much longer to navigate now. With the strength bar and color of the old system, at a glance I have a good understanding of my position/progress in the learning. Now you have taken away the strength bar (hiding the skill decay info) and made the coloring far too busy for quick identification of my current progress/position.

Also, please bring back the ability to repeat a lesson within a skill and the ability to repeat a lesson. That was a useful bit of freedom--for a learner to choose for himself or herself to repeat some new information has has just been taught (taught, not necessarily learned).


I don't like the new format either, it's hard to use and I would just rather type in my answers. As a high school student just starting to learn French this new format is giving me difficulty in studying. Also, I now have to somehow figure out which words to put where, and it is highly confusing.


I agree. Let us go back to the way it was, PLEASE!!!


I thought test out was still there. It's on my trees. Maybe you finished all the test-outs? Anyway, the Crown system is pretty terrible. To get to Crown 5 in Basics 1 or whatever your first skill is, you have to do the exact same lesson again and again because there's nothing more to add in those lessons.


I dislike the new format too. Feel like I'm going back to the beginning. I used ti use the timed parctise and foundit a good challenge. Now they seem to have dumbed it down. Begs the question - WHY???


I get what you're saying. Over 1000 days' streak, with all but 7 skills done, but now I have ZERO completed skills.

Saw a banner that said "Test out of 23 skills" but couldn't be bothered because I'm now totally demoralised and defeated. :(

Thinking about dragging out the Paul Noble set.


I'm not a fan of the new format.
1. I don't understand how I'm supposed to use it. Should I strive to max out the crowns for one circle (which is never ending) before moving on? Should I evenly pursue the the same crown level preceding a checkpoint (get a level 1 crown for all circles, then all level 2 crowns, etc) and then move on to the next set? 2. Where did the Bots go? That was SUCH an effective tool for me and now it seems to be gone.
This app used to work so well, but now it's not working for me at all. "Soy un nino, eres una mujer" I GET IT!!


ok, i'm not wild about starting over, but I recognise that language learning and vocabulary building is about repetition, repetition, repetition, so i'll swallow hard and go back over the basics. BUT there's no TEST OUT! What happened to it? the French tree changed about 3 weeks ago ( maybe a bit more) I was working my way through the changes from basics level using the test out Today I find it's changed again and the test out is gone! WHY?????????????? To say the least, this is irritating, especially coming so soon after the last change to the French course. (And it's the same for the other languages I'm working on - in Spanish I'm right back to basics and I had reached the golden owl!)


I also dislike the new format. I liked the challenge of keeping all the exercise headings orange and could easily see when I needed to revise something because it changed colour. Now I just find it so less user-friendly. I also dislike the simplistic use of tiles to select when constructing sentences. It's like using multiple-choice and you barely need to think about what you need to say.


I don't like the use of tiles in constructing sentences, either. I've used other language learning apps that used that method, and I had to stop using them because I wasn't learning to make sentences myself nor remembering anything.


Totally agree. And what happen to the “ can’t listen now “ function? Sometimes I’m not in a place where I can broadcast French! So I just type nonsense and move on, then I run out of “ health” and can’t continue the lesson. Don’t like the “ health “ function either. Why discourage people from finishing a lesson?


I was thinking about quitting D.L. but after taking a couple weeks off I guess I will start in again. I think that clicking on words to construct sentences is really compromised the best asset of the site. Often the answer options provided, pretty much leave no doubt about what the correct answer is. And a huge part of the learning process in Deutsch is remembering the spelling. I had been writing out each sentence and then writing out the correct answer or translation, this was a good learning tool. It especially helped with spelling. I am a guitar player who is having some over-use problems with my picking hand, so I was doing all this with my left hand instead of my right hand. Another great learning tool ( left/right brain learning). Now it seems like getting to 1/4 of the way through the tree was a waste of time and a lot of hard work. I am also using Pimsleur CDs and a couple of gradually more difficult books GERMAN EASY READER - by Brian Smith and CAFE IN BERLIN-by Andre Klein. So all would not have been lost but you sure screwed up a good system. I guess I will continue to get whatever good out of your site that I can but now Pimsleur and my books are much more valuable tools. signed A VERY DISSAPOINTED USER !


Put me on the list of people that don't like the new format. Before I can see progress and move on to the next level. Now it seems like it's is only busy work and I can't see my progress. It as if I am starting all over again. Change is not always for the better.


This new format is terrible, totally demoralising. I was at 60% fluent and now feel as if I have been taken back to the very beginning. Whoever came up with this system needs to seriously reconsider.


IanFox2 and RogerFoulton are absolutely right. It looks as if I am having to redo all the previous work to get back to where I was. SERIOUSLY !!!!!!!


I was away for months and just came back this week. I have been working to get the first Italian lesson up to the fifth crown and realized the lessons seemed significantly more in depth than I remembered. I think that is a good thing. The pictures at the beginning of a lesson might have disappeared. I am not sure. I liked them. But the tiny cards website still exists if I really want flashcards. There seem to be fewer grammar footnotes, but maybe I just need to look harder for them. Those are my initial impressions of the new system. If the new system enhances learning and retention I am all for it.


I hate the new format. Are you trying to be like Babble. I hated that too and discontinued it.

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