Difficulty level and Plus version

[gregatwan]

Dear Duolingo team,

I know I'm not the first to say this, but I want to add to the chorus. I love Duo as a site, and it would make my dreams come true to have a paid version that solves my biggest pedagogical problem with it: for me, at least, it is simply too easy to be really effective.

The moments in lessons when I really feel like I'm learning, and not just playing, are invariably when I am asked to produce difficult sentences in the target language. I think scaling out the multiple choice and ordering words modules has been a good move, but I know that for a lot of language learners like me, you haven't gone far enough. The average lesson—maybe I'm just insanely unlucky with the randomization, but I doubt it—still reserves the target-to-base questions for the easiest phrases and sentences, often right after hearing or reading the exact same phrase or sentence. Once in a great while I get a good, long, meaty sentence in English to translate to Italian or Russian, and not one I've just done the other way, but it's rare. I'm left craving a list of those sentences. I'm aware that not everyone learns like me, but from where I sit it seems like a natural monetization tool to allow users to shift lessons to their desired difficulty and question types.

I want to say that I, for one, would pay $9/month for some kind of super-challenge mode, or even just a mode in which question types and difficulty can be modulated by the user, to supplement the current lessons. Thanks for your time.

[pentaan]

Once in a great while I get a good, long, meaty sentence in English to translate to Italian or Russian, and not one I've just done the other way, but it's rare

It is so simple!
Start the reverse trees, the courses "English for Italian or Russian speakers. There you will mostly translate to your target language.

More information in my comment in this discussion 12 hours ago
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/25598423

[gregatwan]

This is a good idea, but I really would like—and just want to point out to the devs that I would pay for—a dedicated hard mode. It's not just the sequence of the languages; it's the complexity of sentences, too, particularly later in the tree. Sometimes an entire lesson will go by with the same few sentences, or sentences that emphasize the same grammatical point, over and over, and then ONE challenging sentence that involves some cumulative skills will make you realize how easy the rest have been, and also, in my case, make me wish for a whole bunch more of those.

[JustenR]

I second this. I've bought lesson books that require me to do write in translations, and after I complete each lesson I can check my accuracy with the answer lists in the back of the book. With that being said, I'd pay duolingo if they created a version similar to what you're talking about.

[pentaan]

Sometimes an entire lesson will go by with the same few sentences, ...

I hardly have that isue.
Maybe, because I .....

• use this method
  https://www.duolingo.com/comment/6176795/Best-Way-to-Make-Your-Tree-Turn-Gold-and-Stay-Gold

• mostly exercise laddering trees (translating "foreign language 1 to foreign language 2" and reverse) That's why Duolingo is never boring to me.

• hardly have to regild my normal tree, and never use the "general strengthen" feature in that tree.