7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (2024)

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Duolingo is an excellent introduction to learning a new language, but many users make similar mistakes when using the app. Because of this, they fail to make the most of their lessons.

Often, learners will either train inconsistently or not spend enough time learning. Many people learning a language with Duolingo also fall into the trap of only using this app and not also immersing themselves in their target language elsewhere.

Do you feel like you're not getting the most out of your Duolingo lessons? Here are some tips you should consider to reach your language-learning goals.

1. Spend Plenty of Time Learning

You don’t need to spend hours on Duolingo each day. However, you must put a reasonable amount of time into learning.

If you log in to complete one lesson and sign out as soon as you’ve reached 10XP, you won’t get very far.

To optimize your learning, aim to spend between 15 and 30 minutes on the app each day.

Related: Duolingo Tips For Efficient Language Learning

If you're struggling to commit a decent amount of time to your learning, try breaking the time up throughout your day. You could spend five minutes practicing in the morning, another five at lunchtime, and five more in the evening.

As a way to help yourself spend more time learning, consider increasing your daily XP goals. To do this:

  1. Go to Profile and hit the settings icon at the top of your phone screen.
  2. Scroll down to Edit Daily Goal.
  3. Choose between Casual, Regular, Serious, and Intense.
  4. After making your choice, tap Save.

2. Don't Rely On Duolingo Alone

On the other side of not spending enough time on Duolingo, some users have the opposite problem and rely too much on the app.

If you’re serious about learning a language beyond the beginner stage, you’re going to limit yourself if you only stick to one resource.

Rather than seeing Duolingo as your only resource, look at it as a way to complement the other resources you're using.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (3)

Alongside Duolingo, you can boost your language skills with similar apps, like Babbel.

Other resources are just as useful, though. Besides textbooks, you can also get creative and look for YouTube channels, podcasts, Netflix series, and blogs.

Related: How to Watch Netflix and Still Learn a New Language

3. Don't Leave the App During a Lesson

When you're on Duolingo, staying on the app until you complete your lesson is vital.

If you return to your home screen during the lesson, the app might kick you out of your lesson. You won't get the XP and will need to start again.

The only time you should close the Duolingo app during a lesson is if you encounter a bug. Examples could include a frozen screen, or if your lesson won't start.

4. Use Your Target Language’s Keyboard

Using your target language’s keyboard isn’t a must when using Duolingo. But doing so will make your lessons a lot easier.

Firstly, using your target language’s keyboard will give you access to any unique accents and characters that aren’t available in English.

Secondly, you’ll minimize your risks of making mistakes because of typos.

To change to your target language’s keyboard:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard.
  2. Go into Keyboards.
  3. Go to Add New Keyboard.
  4. Choose the language you want to add.

Before your keyboard appears, you may need to reset your phone. If you still can’t see the keyboard, try the following steps:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region.
  2. Change your phone’s language.

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7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (6)
7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (7)

5. Revise

Just because you’ve completed a level doesn’t mean your job is done. To learn a language, repetition is vital.

To revise effectively, revisit levels that you struggled with and repeat lessons until the vocabulary becomes familiar.

You can also find out where your knowledge has gaps by using the Duolingo web app. Go to More > Words, and review your vocabulary list.

On the vocabulary list, you'll see a list of words and how long it has been since you last practiced them.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (8)

6. Aim for Understanding

When using Duolingo, make sure you understand as much as possible on a level before progressing.

For example, if you’re learning German, when would you use Der and Die? Or for French, when should you use Le and La?

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (9)

To understand when you would use each word and phrase, you have two choices. The first is to follow the previously-mentioned step and revise regularly. You can also write down your own sentences and try to use the words you learn in those contexts.

By taking the time to understand what you learn, rather than simply remembering it, you can transfer your knowledge to real-life situations and supplement the other resources you use.

Related: Babbel vs. Duolingo: Which Language Learning App Is Better?

7. Don't Focus Only on the Duolingo Tree

The Duolingo tree is the core of each language course on the platform. However, you have plenty of other options that you can and should make use of.

French and Spanish have interesting podcasts for English learners. Both of these and others, like German, have a Stories feature. These stories let you practice your grammar and brush up on your vocabulary in a more complex way than the tree offers.

If your target language offers stories, you can start going through these by heading to the Stories tab.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (10)

You can also use the Events tab to find local meetups and connect with like-minded people. You will see a variety of online events here.

To find out what's on offer, go to More > Events.

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Every Duolingo course also has a dedicated forum, dictionary, and word chart. Regardless of which language you’re learning, you should consider using these too.

Besides strengthening your knowledge, you’ll also connect with others and could find a couple of new buddies to learn your target language with.

Maximize Your Language-Learning Experience With Duolingo

Duolingo is popular for a good reason. Each course offers an impressive range of vocabulary to help users start learning a language for free. If you’re willing to go beyond the basics, you can use the app to both advance your skills and keep things fun.

By revising the lessons you’ve learned, using extra features, and using more than one resource to learn your language, you’ll learn more in less time.

7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Duolingo Lessons (2024)

FAQs

How do I maximize learning on Duolingo? ›

How to Learn More in Duolingo
  1. Challenge Yourself and Progress Faster. The research is clear that difficulty – up to a point – enhances learning. ...
  2. Normalize Failure. Back in the day, Duolingo didn't actively penalize users for getting questions wrong. ...
  3. Bypass Word Banks, Where Possible. ...
  4. Vary Your Practice. ...
  5. Build Up Your Streak.
Jan 7, 2021

What is the best strategy for Duolingo fluency? ›

It's best to repeat the phrases you hear in Duolingo out loud. I recommend reading each word out loud three times. And this is because Duolingo doesn't give you many opportunities to speak, which is an essential component of becoming fluent! Type what you hear and read it out loud repeatedly until you become fluent.

How do you skip harder levels on Duolingo? ›

If you have previous experience with a language and feel that lessons are too easy, you can scroll to the next locked unit and tap the circle that says “Jump here?”. If you pass the test, you'll unlock that unit! NOTE: This will complete all levels up to that point.

What happens after checkpoint 10 in Duolingo? ›

Once you complete a checkpoint on the Duolingo tree, the main thing that will happen is you will unlock the next unit, and therefore pass through to the next big chunk of the course.

How long should I use Duolingo per day? ›

To optimize your learning, aim to spend between 15 and 30 minutes on the app each day. If you're struggling to commit a decent amount of time to your learning, try breaking the time up throughout your day.

Can you become fluent with Duolingo? ›

We see this question a lot and the answer is: yes. Duolingo is a free language-learning platform, and every language and lesson is totally free!

What level of Duolingo is fluent? ›

At Duolingo, we're developing our courses to get you to a level called B2, at which you can get a job in the language you're studying. Reaching that kind of proficiency requires dedication, varied practice opportunities, and a lot of time.

How many Duolingo lessons should I do a day? ›

Casual is one lesson per day, Regular is two, Serious is three, and Insane is five lessons in a day. I have my daily goal set to Serious, which requires completing three lessons daily, but I'll often do more lessons if I have the time, typically around five or six.

What is a very good Duolingo score? ›

What Is A Good Duolingo Test Score? A good Duolingo score will be 110 and above. If you score above 120, it is considered excellent.

What is the hardest language to learn on Duolingo? ›

It means they've gotten the word right every time it has been shown. Anyway, based on this linear regression, French is definitely the hardest language, insofar as it takes more instances of seeing a certain word before reaching the same number of correct productions as one of the other languages.

Is it hard to get 115 in Duolingo? ›

Upper-Intermediate: A Duolingo test score between 90-115 means the applicant is an upper-intermediate student who can converse on unfamiliar topics, can understand ideas behind both concrete as well as abstract writing and can interact with proficient speakers with ease.

What Duolingo level is B2? ›

Upper Intermediate
DuolingoCEFR
100-125B2

What happens when you reach 100 days on Duolingo? ›

Reaching certain milestones (such as 100 day streak) can earn the user 3 days free of Super Duolingo.

How far will Duolingo get you? ›

When it comes to listening and reading, they found that 5 units of Duolingo is comparable to 4 university semesters. As for speaking, they found that at least 50% of learners that had completed 5 units of the French and Spanish courses reached at least an A2 level of speaking.

What is the highest score in Duolingo till now? ›

The highest score band is 155-160. This equates to a staggering IELTS 9.0 band score as well.

What happens after 365 days of Duolingo? ›

You reach the first tier once you hit a 365-day streak. After that, it goes up every year, and this will be reflected on your weekly leaderboards and profile page. So if you keep the flame burning for 3 years, you'll have a little 3-year badge underneath your username.

What happens when you reach 365 days on Duolingo? ›

VIP status is unlocked at 365 days and puts a little streak counter underneath your username in the leaderboards. It goes up in years, so for each year you maintain your streak, your VIP status will update. So if you have a 6-year streak, it will say '6+ years'.

How long do you have to do Duolingo to be fluent? ›

Putting in ten hours of study and practice per day, this equates to two months for “easy” languages and four months for “difficult” languages. How do you get started? Web sites such as DuoLingo can teach you 27 languages for free.

What is the hardest language to learn? ›

Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

Is Duolingo better than Babbel? ›

The biggest difference between Babbel and Duolingo is the approach to language learning. Babbel is a better option if you want traditional language instructions through modules and lessons. By contrast, Duolingo works great if you need a playful, gamified experience.

Is Rosetta Stone better than Duolingo? ›

Yes. After thoroughly testing out and reviewing each language learning app, we found Rosetta Stone to be a superior program to Duolingo. While we like Duolingo's gamification of learning, Rosetta Stone is simply more comprehensive and effective.

What is the easiest language to learn? ›

We've used data from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to rank them from the easier to the somewhat more challenging.
  • Frisian. ...
  • Dutch. ...
  • Norwegian. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Italian. ...
  • French. ...
  • Swedish.
Oct 24, 2021

What is the most taken language in Duolingo? ›

English is the top language of choice for Indians to learn on Duolingo. According to the India report card 2022 of Duolingo—the most downloaded education app worldwide—the top five languages Indians are learning on the platform are English, Hindi, French, Korean and Spanish.

Is Duolingo actually good for Spanish? ›

Verdict: Should You Use Duolingo To Learn Spanish? All in all, there's a lot to like about Duolingo. This Spanish learning app is free, there's a decent variety of drills and exercises, and the digital platform is top-notch. However, there are certainly some disadvantages with Duolingo Spanish as well.

What percentage of Duolingo users finish their course? ›

Duolingo doesn't release completion rates for its courses, but a report last year said American users ranked 68th out of all countries in the number of lessons completed. A separate informal study put the overall completion rate for Spanish at less than 0.01 percent.

What happens when you finish a language in Duolingo? ›

There is no such thing as a “finished” language course. So at Duolingo, we're always working to make our courses better! If you've gotten an update, it's because we're excited to share the latest changes to the existing course.

What happens if you make too many mistakes in Duolingo? ›

Hearts are used as a way of pacing Duolingo lessons to balance practice and new material. You can lose Hearts by answering incorrectly too many times, which has been encouraging users to pay closer attention to what they are answering before hitting “check”. You will start out with 5 Hearts each day!

What is the lowest score on Duolingo? ›

Scores on the Duolingo English Test are reported on a scale from 10–160.

What is a good Duolingo score for harvard? ›

Meeting the Requirement
TestMinimum Approved Score
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)*100 on the Internet-based TOEFL iBT, including the TOEFL iBT Home Edition
International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Academic*7.0
Pearson Test of English Academic (PTEA)70
Duolingo English Test (DET)125

What Duolingo score do I need for college? ›

Duolingo Score Requirements

The requirements for Duolingo test accepted universities in USA usually lie in the range of 105-120. A score above 120 is considered to be quite good in terms of graduate study programs like MBA, MS in Finance, Masters in Civil Engineering, etc.

What is the top 3 hardest language to learn? ›

Let's explore the 10 hardest languages for English speakers to learn, and the challenges they deliver:
  1. Mandarin. Mandarin is spoken by 70% of the Chinese population, and is the most spoken language in the world. ...
  2. Arabic. ...
  3. Japanese. ...
  4. Hungarian. ...
  5. Korean. ...
  6. Finnish. ...
  7. Basque. ...
  8. Navajo.
Sep 16, 2022

What is the 7 hardest language to learn? ›

7 Most Difficult Languages to Learn for Native English Speakers
  • 1 – Chinese (Mandarin)
  • 2 – Arabic.
  • 3 – Japanese.
  • 4 – Korean.
  • 5 – Hungarian.
  • 6 – Finnish.
  • 7 – Xhosa.
Feb 7, 2020

Which university is accepting Duolingo in USA? ›

List of Duolingo Accepted Universities in the USA
Seattle Pacific UniversityNorthwestern University - Medill School
University of Houston – Victoria (UHV)Boston College - Carroll School of Management
University of Maryland Global CampusRegis University
Rice UniversityHarvard Medical School
19 more rows
Jan 30, 2023

Can I take duolingo test at night? ›

Choose a time of day when you'll think and feel your best. You can take the Duolingo English Test any time, anywhere. Some test takers are early birds and others are night owls--choose the time that works best for you!

How many times can I retake duolingo test for free? ›

Duolingo exam validity is unlimited, and also if you fail multiple times, you can retake it as many times as you deem necessary.

Is B2 considered fluent? ›

Level B2: Basic Fluency

Reaching B2 is generally considered by most people as having basic fluency. You'll have a working vocabulary of around 4000 words.

Does B2 mean fluent? ›

Level B2 corresponds to independent users of the language, i.e. those who have the necessary fluency to communicate without effort with native speakers.

Can you actually learn a language while sleeping? ›

A new study suggests some language learning can take place during sleep. Researchers from Switzerland's University of Bern say they discovered people were able to learn new language words during deep levels of sleep. Results of the study recently appeared in the publication Current Biology.

What happens if you get a 30 day streak on Duolingo? ›

The Streak Society is an exclusive club in Duolingo acquired by users upon reaching a 30 day streak. The program was rolled out on May 28th, 2022 and originally limited membership to users with a 365 day streak. It contains rewards for its members accessible through a tiered system.

What happens when you skip a day of Duolingo? ›

Get a streak freeze to make sure you don't lose your streak when you forget to practice for a day. A streak freeze must be purchased in advance of a day of a missed lesson to protect the streak. You can equip up to 2 streak freezes at a time. You can purchase a streak freeze via the app and web shop.

What is the longest Duolingo streak ever? ›

The longest streak on Duolingo is over 9 years long (3,285+ days) and was earned by user christi3. However, multiple users have accomplished this feat of a world record Duolingo Streak and have made it onto a Streak Hall of Fame. Above you can see the list of users who have completed a streak of over 2555 days.

Has anyone ever finished Duolingo? ›

Duolingo gives you a placement test at the beginning of any new course so that you don't have to waste time with things you already know. I immediately “tested out” of 70% of the lessons and was able to take the final test for the Duolingo Award as they call it and completed it.

Does Duolingo track your time? ›

Duolingo will also tell you how many minutes you spent learning a language on the app, which can give you a good idea of whether your output was productive. Using that information, you can adjust your learning strategy if you feel that doing so is necessary.

Does Duolingo take your family? ›

A Family Plan is where the primary account holder/ family manager can share a Super Duolingo annual subscription and all of its amazing features with up to five (5) other Duolingo users, totaling six (6) members per Family Plan.

How do I improve my Duolingo score? ›

Top tips for passing for the Duolingo exam
  1. Tip 1: Learn and practise new vocabulary. ...
  2. Tip 2: Focus on your listening skills. ...
  3. Tip 3: Get reading and notice those grammar structures. ...
  4. Tip 4: Tune in your ear to american accents. ...
  5. Tip 5: Practise your sentence intonation. ...
  6. Tip 6: Test yourself on vocabulary pronunciation.

Who is the best Duolingo player? ›

The user with the most XP on Duolingo is Gue8000 with 11,895,374 XP and the user with the second most XP on Duolingo is davidbohardt with 10,170,803 XP. There is some debate as to who is the user with the most amount of XP on Duolingo.

What is the last level in Duolingo? ›

How many levels are there in Duolingo? The old Duolingo levels ranged from 1 to 25 — with 1 being the lowest, and 25 being the highest. However, the new style levels depend entirely on the course you're taking. As a general rule of thumb: the more content your course has, the more levels it will have to work through.

How many Duolingo lessons should you do per day? ›

Casual is one lesson per day, Regular is two, Serious is three, and Insane is five lessons in a day. I have my daily goal set to Serious, which requires completing three lessons daily, but I'll often do more lessons if I have the time, typically around five or six.

How long does it take to max out Duolingo? ›

So, if you have 387.5 hours of material to get through – and you practice for 15 minutes a day – that's 1,550 days. (387.5 hours is 23,250 minutes. Divide that by 15 minutes per day, and you get 1,550 days to finish a language.) NO WONDER there's so many memes about Duolingo taking forever!!!!

What happens when you finish all the lessons in Duolingo? ›

Once you complete all the levels in a unit, you'll complete a challenge to earn your unit trophy. You'll also have the option to earn the Legendary trophy for each unit.

How do I start advanced on Duolingo? ›

Can you start Duolingo at a higher level? Yes, you can start your Duolingo language course at a higher level! To start at a higher level, you'll need to take Duolingo's placement test when you start a new language course. This should pop up automatically when you first boot up your course.

How long does 1 Duolingo lesson take? ›

So now that you know how the Duolingo program is structured, let's dive into what the lessons themselves are actually like. And the major takeaway is this: they're very short. As I just referenced above, each one only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to complete, and they go by super fast.

Has anyone ever finished every Duolingo course? ›

That said, no course is ever complete (just look at all the changes Duolingo have made to the French and Spanish courses over the years!)

What is the longest course on Duolingo? ›

What is the longest Duolingo streak?
  • SarkaB – 3675 days.
  • johnarnold – 3671 days.
  • DeeRamm – 3670 days.
  • jelinek – 3670 days.
  • davidbohardt – 3652 days.
Feb 3, 2023

What level will Duolingo get you to? ›

At Duolingo, we're developing our courses to get you to a level called B2, at which you can get a job in the language you're studying. Reaching that kind of proficiency requires dedication, varied practice opportunities, and a lot of time.

Why is Duolingo lessons so repetitive? ›

Duolingo's design largely relies upon a system called “spaced repetition,” a technique in which learned information is repeated at regular (usually short) intervals. And it's true that spaced repetition combats what's called the “forgetting curve,” thus allowing for easier and longer-lasting memorization.

Should you repeat lessons on Duolingo? ›

If you are not comfortable with the material, you can repeat a lesson without penalty. Once you have completed all the lessons in a skill , you can either use the "Practice" option inside of that skill , or pick another unlocked skill and work on that. The goal is to complete the entire tree.

What happens when you finish the tree in Duolingo? ›

Finishing a Duolingo tree should give you a solid foundation of essential words and expressions. However, if you've ever tried to read an article or listen to a podcast in your target language, you've probably noticed that there are still major gaps in your vocabulary.

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