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> previously there were more questions where it was necessary to type in the full translation, but now in most exercises we only need to input a single word or rearrange the word cards. This is a complaint I keep seeing regarding the new layout, but it seems disingenuous to me, as every one who notes it also skips over the fact that the linear lessons now also have large yet optional testing components at the end of every section. If you choose to skip these, yes, you are going to see many easier questions, as the nodes on the track are lessons. The tests are almost exclusively long form written questions, not the easy format you describe. For all of the gripes of the new linear path format, this choice in how you learn is never put forward. Before the format change, this separation of easy vs hard didn't really exist, not even on L5 for the nodes that made them finish and go purple. In my experience, this has allowed me to focus in the end of section tests, where I still regular fail to pass due to the 3 lives provided. This forced use of long form + no mistakes has really forced me to understand and parse my errors. For all the complaining that I've seen in the in-app comments for certain translations being incorrectly rejected, I've yet to come across one myself. Instead, it's always something else that I got just almost right, but still wrong. A bad gender, missing/wrong participle, pronoun in wrong place, typo etc. It's really hard to spot your own errors especially when it will only give you a single correct answer back when you got it wrong (despite many other valid translations are accepted and understand too). Being able to spot your own errors though has been invaluable as I feel I've gotten a lot better at it since the format change. If I weren't doing the tests, it definitely would feel much easier. |
If you're referring to the legendary lessons, then yes, I complete them as well and find them to be very useful. However, many people don't mention them because they cost a lot of gems for non-premium users (I use Duolingo Super), so they can't consistently complete these lessons. Sentence translation is an important part of language learning, yet it's kept behind a paywall. While I understand that the company needs to earn money, for non-paying users these lessons essentially don't exist.
> For all the complaining that I've seen in the in-app comments for certain translations being incorrectly rejected, I've yet to come across one myself. Unfortunately, this has become a serious problem for me. I didn't encounter such situations at the beginning of the course either, but the further I progress, the more frequently I come across them. It's to be expected, as the content is mostly created by crowdsourcing, and later lessons have fewer people studying them, so not as many people check them. Despite reporting dozens of such cases on Duolingo in the past year, I have yet to receive a single response.