Test Out Temporarily Disabled

[DarthDuo]

As some of you may have noticed, we recently started rolling out an A/B test that allows some users to test out of a specific level of a skill. Unfortunately, in order to reduce the stress on our systems while we debug an issue, we had to temporarily pause this experiment for everyone. Thank you for your patience; we realize this feature is important to many of you, and rest assured we are working hard to find a resolution as soon as possible.

Update 6/23/18: We have turned the experiment back on :)

[Strandfloh]

Thanks for letting us know. The possibility to test out is great!

[dave.pretty]

Please hurry. I don't think I can live without it now. And it has, btw, been beautifully calibrated: the units I've tested out of have been ones that would have driven me crazy, probably three days to get through, while where I haven't passed, there were real "oh, I didn't know that" moments in the unit.

[Tom2711]

I totally agree with you! Having these Tests have now become essential rather than spending hours on a lesson you know off by heart.

[dave.pretty]

I just saw it back! Thanks! Now to test it!

[dave.pretty]

Wonderrful! Instead of 24 units in Italian Adjectives 2 (to get to level 4), I'm done in five minutes, losing only two hearts. This is wonderful, letting me know where I need work, instead of the three days at least wasted on "loro non sono cattivi." Grazie!

[vinrute]

Thanks for posting and explaining what's going on. I really love the new feature, too! Best of luck with the debugging.

[KiwiLemonBerry]

Thank you for the explanation. I hope that Duolingo keeps this option to test out of skills, because it can be frustrating and time consuming for users to have to learn skills they already know.

[DutchDanielle]

Yes exactly!

[HirundoPrima]

It is an amazing and very important feature, I would like to see it back as soon as possible. Keep up the good work!

[Ruel-Stroud]

Do you know when it'll come bac up? Anyway good luck with the maintenance.

[Evan.Tracy]

Wow. 11800 Xp in a day. You have been hard at work today.

[Ruel-Stroud]

Yeah a little of hard work. I did almost the whole tree today I was close to finishing it with the shortcuts.

[nminhquan]

great work!!!!

[Camilla-danesa]

wow, I never pictured that possibility! Almost the whole tree in one day!

[SGuthrie0]

Camilla,
I see you still have your streak going. Congrats.

[Camilla-danesa]

thank you SGuthrie!

[Holsen4]

Oh! Thank you for clearing up the confusion. :) Do you know when it'll come bac up?

[LorettaPresley]

I'm glad that it will be coming back. I just checked my tree and was sad to see it gone. I figured that you got rid of it permanently.

[DGordonWil]

By the way, I LOVE IT! Wow, the test out function is so exciting! Honestly, I thought I had just hit the jackpot in Las Vegas as I watched all those XPs ring up! Phenomenal! Keep up the great work!

[tech274]

Merci beaucoup pour le poste !

I was so happy this morning when I saw "the key". I tested out of 3 levels then figured I'd get back to it this evening.

Except the keys were gone! I was in a panic. Maybe check Dutch or Spanish , log out and back in , shut down the browser and restart.

No , I'm not crazy , there was a key symbol there this morning. Wasn't there? Maybe I just dreamt it.

Then I found your post. This is a very useful feature for me and it really energized me. This will allow me to quickly catch up to the level of French I had pre-crowns , then slow down and work on the new French 3.0 material.

I sure hope I am one of the people who gets this back. I went through 560 iterations of "Je suis un(e) X" over 2 trees.

[Knoxienne]

Understandable

[OmegaGmaster]

Have a nice day!

[Marvin27311]

Wow, it look like you rushed up this new feature x)

[Marvin27311]

I love this new feature, please implement it for good ! This feature remotivated me to work hard, I now do want to reach level 25 in most of the languages you're proposing !

Please fix it soooooooon x)

Road to 25 !

[Corinnebelle]

I think we will see a lot of leveling up quickly with this new feature. All the added lessons with crowns make a massive amount of xp when you level up. You don't receive lingots when you jump up levels tho. :(

[vinrute]

I've been receiving 1 lingot each time I jump up a crown level without losing any hearts.

[Etemenanki1]

That has happened to me, too. Oneself get fewer lingots, but this doesn't matter. What matter it's faster crown level system and XPs. Great! :)

[potatoemouse]

Have some lingots on me then. (There is not much else I can do with them.)

[Corinnebelle]

Thank you! So sweet of you! :)

[Hannibal-Barkas]

Dear DarthDuo: May the fourth be with you and your efforts to fix the system. This feature was Imperial!

[Corinnebelle]

Thank-you for an EXCELLENT feature! I will be waiting to use it again so I can get back to using Duolingo the way I was before crowns!

[QHjr]

Just adding my voice to the chorus: THIS IS/WAS A GREAT FEATURE... I hope it returns SOON!

[QHjr]

Das Funktion war ausgezeichnet! ... Ich hoffe, es kommt bald zurück!

[AdamKean]

* Die Funktion :)

Kleiner Tipp:
Alle Wörter, die die Endung „-tion“ haben, sind weiblich.

[JimDowner3]

Yes, having the ability to skip the things you already know is a real help!

[merricatt]

Thank you for your work

[Ruel-Stroud]

I tried to follow you back and the duolingo bugged

[Danielkaas94]

It was great! :D

[poche112]

I only found that option yesterday and I thought 'great' I can get my trees all back to gold again.... sadly today it is gone. ;=( Hope they bring it back soon.

[_CHAM3LE0N_]

Thanks for telling us. Test out is a great function that allows a lot of time to be saved while still learning a lot on the skill. Do you know when the new function will be back up and running?

[Michael708915]

I have found that the test questions are too easy. I am being given mostly Spanish prompts to translate to English whether I am testing out of level 0 or level 4. I would say that at level 4, nearly all responses should be in the target language, and that at level 5, questions are wrong if missing the accents.

[Strandfloh]

I agree. The tests are so easy that it is no challenge. I do use the test out feature and like it a lot, but only for skills which I know so well that I am absolutely sure that I no longer need to practice them.

[gatoblanco26]

What a relief...I tested out of many skills yesterday and today the option was gone! Glad you are working on fixing it because it really makes practice more enjoyable. I hated repeating the super simple things. Thanks!

[Frivalry]

Waiting for access to test-out with bated breath under crownS of thorns! The feature was available for individual skills well before the coronal system was implemented. It's subsequent removal, combined with the loading of often boringly redundant course material, would be a large speed bump for most longer-term learners.

In any case, going by popular demand, I would say that such test-out should now be considered a crucial given (if not an important course correction), A/B testing or no. To decide otherwise arguably amounts to nothing more or less than ghastly, cruel human experimentation on both the A test group and the B control group, especially considering all the heightened expectations.

Still love ya Duo and volunteers ... please get in-skill test-out going for everyone ASAP. Meantime I'm largely reduced to timed practice---or ranting and raving on discussion posts!

Respectfully ...

[kon.gkanias]

Please give the opportunity to everyone to test out the new feature!!!

[WeirdGuyEli]

Okay, because I sure was sad when I logged back in and it wasn't there :,( I love that feature

[WeirdGuyEli]

I just want to reach those more difficult parts of the tree that I really need to study the fun way Duolingo offers!

[opusduo]

Thanks for letting us know. Please bring back the feature...very useful! Have a good weekend!

[wyqtor]

Please keep this feature. Between this and the addition of Hawaiian into the incubator, I feel like Duolingo is finally starting to come back on the right track after a long period of uncertainty.

If only you got spaced repetition integrated with the crown system, then everything would be perfect!

[jedi10549]

Please give it to everyone! I don't have it yet :_(

[ShoshanetMayyim]

I loved the test out feature for the short time I had it lol

[KiwiLemonBerry]

Yeah! It usually takes me 5 minutes per lesson, and I would go through the skill in about half an hour, but with the test out feature I could go quickly, and gain a lot of XP + "learn" the skill in only 7 or 8 minutes.

[tony_oui]

Just got the “pleasure” of losing 40-50 “un-lose-able” crowns with the rollout of new Spanish Tree. I would be totally ok with losing crowns as long as I was learning something new. I checked out one of the “new” subject areas, “Travel”. I was put through re-learning “maleta” “hotel” “taxi” etc. Definitely not “new” stuff. The “new Spanish Tree” rollout should be stopped and folks already subjected to this should be be able to roll back to the previous tree until test out really works and/or the initial calibration is vastly improved.

[e3brown79]

That happened to me too. I was so close to giving up on Duolingo but now with the test out I can get my tree back with so much less repetition of basic material.

[Bill147479]

As long as this isn't a cover-up to permanently removing the feature, I'm all for it.

[onebravocharlie]

Thank you for explaining. I imagine you realize how much it is appreciated!

[DutchDanielle]

Thanks for the explaination. I really hope this feature will be back soon. Good luck with fixing it. I love duolingo, mucho.

[ZhangtheGreat]

Thank you for the notification, Duolingo. I can't speak for everyone, but I'll be patient while you iron out the wrinkles.

[baumbaerin]

Mir gefällt diese neue Möglichkeit auch sehr gut und ich freue mich sehr, wenn es schnell wieder funktioniert. Danke für das Feature u d die Bemühungen das Problem so schnell als möglich zu lösen :)

[Arkadios200]

Holy mother of Ahura Mazda, I thought that said “permanently” when I first saw it!

[isnottogive]

It's understandable, though I was a bit confused at first when it disappeared.

Thanks for the hard work!

[D3act1vat3d_Us3r]

When do you think testing out will be back up? I really liked what few moments I had using this excellent feature.

[Lee983817]

Gracias, yo quiero terminar el arbol de espanol!

[Marvin27311]

ya casi llegas !

[ManuelPapi1]

Thanks please get it back up soon chief!

[aculady]

I happened to notice it yesterday and tested out of several subject levels. It's a nice feature. It gets really boring otherwise.

[buck72]

Thank you for letting us know that Test Out is Temporarily Disabled. Also, thank you for bringing it back. This morning, while using the Test Out feature, I had the most fun on DL that I've had in months. :)

[pepperpeper]

thanks for letting us know but please hurry I never tried it I noticed it yesterday anyways goodluck

[dlhgl]

Thanks so much for working on the weekend to enable this feature again! The possibility to test out of a skill level is great :-)

[Sigira0]

Thanks for letting us know - I was well pleased when I saw this feature :-)

[SGuthrie0]

I was wondering why I suddenly had the option to test out of some levels. I really like that feature. Thanks for starting it.

[Duha777]

Thank you, all the best

[BlueCookies13]

When is this going to be coming back on?

[knp38]

ohhhhh I was wondering what happened

[knp38]

Please tell me when it's back. It's really helpful

[JiyuuNoChiheisen]

the key is there !!!!!

[vinrute]

It's back on mine, too!!!

[D3act1vat3d_Us3r]

Mine three!

[KWarren365]

I had this ability during the test, but no longer have access since it was turned back on. Could I please be given access to i again? I made some progress for the first time in months yesterday when this was enabled.

[lingolangs]

My key is back also! Hallelujah!

[JulianBixler]

so glad, now i dont have to grind out 120 lessons x 12 skills anymore

[DestartreK1st]

The experiment is awesome!

[DGordonWil]

It is so wonderful!

[NeoTubNinja]

Whoa! Lots of comments here to parse, so if I'm beating a dead horse I apologize in advance.

Basically, I see some "flaws" in the testing out feature and thought I would address them (maybe to the detriment of some users, but they should be few so sorry in advance to them as well). I put flaws in quotes because maybe they aren't actually flaws. Anyways, without further delay ...

Testing out of a skill on my phone vs computer is a very different experience. From what testing I did (all of it was on the German tree where I feel comfortable testing out of skills), the computer version was fairly consistent with how many questions you had to answer while the mobile version often times made it too easy with very few questions. Sometimes so easy in fact that it was impossible to fail testing out of certain skills.

So let me give an example. We are going to use the Past Perfect section of the German tree where I'm currently Level 2. I saved this one partially because of how easy it was to test out, but mostly because I feel I still need practice the skills of the lesson and didn't want to hurt my own progress for the sake of crowns.

In this example, if I were to test out of it on my computer, I would be greeted with 15-17 questions (not sure on the exact number since it's one solid bar) of which 3 could be wrong before I had to start over. However, if I did the exact same test on my phone, I would only have to answer 2 questions of which 3 could be wrong. What that effectively means is no matter how I did on the only 2 questions it asked me, I would level up regardless. Even worse, sometimes it's basically the same question, but instead of translating from English to German, I might have to do the reverse, but with the same sentence. This means that if you got the first question right, it's basically a shoo-in for the next answer.

Now this might be part of what is causing this to occur, but it almost seems like there is a smaller pool of sentences to pull from for mobile versions of Duolingo. Even with some of the tests that had a larger set of questions, they felt more re-hashed on mobile than on PC. This might not be an easily solvable problem, but I would at least rather be greeted with ~15 questions that are fairly similar but still test me.

OK, now going even further down the rabbit hole, this might be dependent somewhat on the language, but there is a lot of variability with the amount of questions within the same lesson. For example, the Fantasy lesson had about 4 questions each for testing out of Levels 1, 2 and 3, but to test out of Level 4 you needed to answer about 15 (which was nice). I also saw this happen in other lessons but where the reverse was true. Where the first few tests would be a high quantity of questions but the last couple lessons would only be ~4-8.

Anyways, I already abused it more than I probably should have (but I feel comfortable in the lessons I tested out of), but in an effort to stop people who aren't ready to test out, I thought I'd bring it to your attention. Good stuff so far though! This isn't really a complaint so much as bringing it to your attention. Keep up the good work!

[vinrute]

I've been testing out of crown levels for the last three weeks. Here's my review:

Most importantly, the test out feature is an excellent feature that should be available to all users. In fact, it's so necessary and powerful that if it's not implemented for all users then I'd argue that any users who haven't had access to it yet should receive access for the same amount of time as the test group, in order to rebalance Duolingo's crown levels and XP.

The normal pathway of doing lessons to move up crown levels is too repetitive and easy, making the process feel like a mind-numbing grind. Despite that, prior to the test-out feature coming to my account, I couldn't keep myself from grinding out the early crown levels on my trees. I knew my efforts would be better spent on the mid to later sections of my trees, but I strongly disliked how the low crown levels at the start of my tree felt like they were reflecting a much lower knowledge of those skills than I knew I possessed. That feeling, and an urge to have my entire tree complete again, caused me to waste too much time on early skill crown levels.

I understand the rationale of the crown levels, but don't think that vision is coming across in practice. I would love for my tree to include more complex sentence structures, vocab, skills, and sentences to practice. However, in all of the crown levels I worked on throughout my trees I never noticed anything new and noticeably more difficult. But I did notice several skills that honestly required 50 lessons to move from crown level 4 to crown level 5. How is that justifiable? Anyone who gets to level 4 will already have put a lot of practice into that skill, and I simply don't see enough complexity or new material added between crown levels 4 and 5 to justify 50 new lessons to complete.

I noticed that the tests were not perfect, but seemed to get better either over the three weeks or as I moved down my trees. I only tested out on the web version on my computer. In one test I had the sentence "Katzen schlafen überall" four times in the same test, which tested my knowledge the first time and gave me easy correct answers the other three. I've also noticed mostly the same questions repeated in each level whether I was testing out of crown level 2, 3, 4, or 5. The format of the question/answer got more difficult as I went along, in the early crown levels with more word bank answers, then later translating from the target language, then later translating into the target language. That actually made testing out easier the more crown levels I had available to test because the more levels I did the more times I saw the same sentences over and over, which made the increasingly difficult formats not that difficult due to me already being familiar with the test sentences.

However, the test out feature is still an enormous improvement. My three main trees are beautiful and golden again. Testing out of the crown levels for each skill has resulted in me refreshing my way down my trees at a fast enough pace to be appropriate for my level, and now that all three of my main trees are refreshed I can go back to using "Practice All" every day, focussing on reviewing the content I actually should be learning instead of getting bogged down in grinding the beginner skills. That is the reason why this feature needs to be given to everyone, so the people who would be helped by it in the same way that I've been helped can have that opportunity.

The lack of transparency for skill strength that the crown levels have brought to the trees is a big problem. The Spaced Repetition System on Duolingo is a feature that I highly value and trust. I used to be able to quickly see which skills on my tree needed to be practiced and refreshed. Losing that information when the skill colours changed to reflect crown levels rather than skill strength, combined with trees wallowing in low crown levels with ridiculous numbers of lessons required in order to raise them, made me feel both overwhelmed and lacking direction. The only options on Duolingo being the "Practice All" button or blindly practicing individual skills without knowing their skill strength is not enough.

Thankfully, just over three weeks ago I discovered Duome for the first time, and seeing my individual skill strengths and total tree strengths gave me an enormous amount of motivation and direction. I understand that a fine balance is required, as any feature might motivate some users while simultaneously demotivating others. However it's achieved, I think it's incredibly important to get the knowledge of what needs to be practiced back into the hands of Duolingo users.

That about wraps up my review. I hope it was helpful, and as always, Duolingo, thank you. I really love this site. Now that my trees are refreshed I'm looking forward to keeping my three main trees full strength, doing more Duolingo Stories, and starting back in on learning Spanish. Plus waiting for my account to get access to the new Esperanto and Spanish trees, though after being fortunate enough to be in this test group I'm more than happy being as patient as necessary.

And for anyone who wants their skill and tree strength information and hasn't yet discovered duome, just go to www.duome.eu/[YourDuolingoUsername]/progress and be amazed.

[territech]

I am thrilled to have this feature. I could swear it was on my iPhone last week, but now only on web version. Was it removed from the app?

[pentaan]

Currently, the "test out of individual skill" feature is only available in the iOS App in "Crown level" 0

• Use www.duolingo.com in your device's browser to level up from "crown level" 1-5
• or use the Android App.

[territech]

Ah yes. After updating my Duolingo app, I now see the option to test out of the purple modules.

[yourghosts]

When is this feature being re-implemented in the app for all users? I am currently using Duo to practice Greek, which I've studied in ancient and modern forms for the last 10 years and I do NOT need 96 lessons to become fluent/level 5 in the Greek alphabet. Additionally, the lesson tips are not visible in my latest app update (ios 5.2.43) on any lesson, despite the fact that this is exactly what that update promised? Previous updates have shown tips just fine.

[suzysnowflake]

and its off again on my iphone. Was there, then disappeared. Will it be returning to iOS? I'm using the laptop to review today.

[Bmamer]

I noticed the feature was available yesterday, but not today?

[Thomas.Heiss]

@Bmamer

Quote: I noticed the feature was available yesterday, but not today?

Do you mean on the mobile app or the web portal?

You can find different A/B groups for mobile vs web in your "extended user profile" and theoretically, you could have been swapped from the one group to the other.

Or maybe a mobile app update (if you did that) has removed it by mistake...who knows...

Use this link on the web portal to get it back and access the barbell PRACTICE button, if the key button is still not accessible for you on the www.duolingo.com web portal: http://www.duome.eu/USERNAME/progress

[paigecm229]

Thanks for letting us know! I really love that feature.

[TheEmood]

Thanks for letting us know! I thought that was a glitch or something, because I only had it for a day or so. That option makes everything a lot easier when you already know the stuff.

[Andre147333]

I was worried that it was gone permanently. I loved that new feature! I hope you guys figure out the problem!

[PurpleJane]

Thanks for explaining this - like others i was bummed to see it gone and I am thrilled to know that you are working to bring it back.

[Camilla-danesa]

about testing out... I have a question:

I already reached level 25 in some of my languages, and 100000XP – but with the crown feature a lot of the lessons started to look incomplete. I don't have the option of testing out, because I have already done the tree.

What do you recommend doing?

Do I need to reset the tree, in order to take advantage of the test-out feature?

If I do a reset, will I lose all the accumulated XP for that language?

Thank you for answering my questions!

[Tamara_eM]

It was test out skill level, jump crown levels, not overall language level. No need to reset anything (and if you reset you will lose xp for that language). When we get the feature back, you can easily (you still need to work a lot, but easier than doing all the new lessons) make your trees golden, just jump from crown level 1 to 2 to .... gold.

[Camilla-danesa]

thank you for explaining this to me!

[Raslc]

I was wondering why that little 'key' icon was gone :C

[KaptianKaos8]

New French tree under A/B testing! Didn’t get it. New Esperanto tree under A/B testing! Didn’t get it. Test out of skill under A/B testing...

[JiyuuNoChiheisen]

OK thank you very much i was afraid when i saw that the key diseapered today :) Thank you duolingo for your app and your innovations !!!!! Please everyone give a lingo to darthduo !!!

[fuigshdrkh]

Thanks for the heads up, I was wondering why it was gone again. It's a great feature.

[wildfox1994]

This thing is great! I want it back! :D

[JakeSwagSnake]

Thank you. I was wondering were it went. I love test out and i would like to have it back ASAP.

[FrenchRemastered]

Honestly, no worries! I first noticed it yesterday and tried it out and it was a huge help, seeing how I have been learning French for 4 years now. It helps get through the stuff I already know. Thank you for the feature and good luck on the debugging.

[merkavar]

Awe

I miss it already

[Quattrostelle]

It's essential functionality. Please bring it back, and thanks for your efforts!

[PhilMacK]

Add me to the list of those who really like the test out feature. I used it for the first time yesterday. I hope it will be brought back quickly.

[mjmiciak]

I never heard of this feature. Sounds good! Would it have helped me reach Level 25 in Spanish faster? I finally made it to Level 25 yesterday with 30004 XPs, all of them earned by slogging through the lessons in hundreds of hours over the last three-and-a-half years. I guess this means the Levels have been devalued, right? When I reached Level 23 last November, there were the usual lingots and trumpet fanfare for leveling up. Not so in April when I hit Level 24 nor yesterday at Level 25. Looking forward to this test out feature so I can try it out on another language. Duo on!

[hal0dude7]

This is great news anyhow, can't wait for this system to be fully implemented!

[utprekshaa]

I only used it for the very first time yesterday, and absolutely LOVED it! (Half wondered if I had broken it somehow till I saw this post.) Can't wait for it to come back! :)

[Omentide]

I really liked that feature and I hope it returns soon. The reason it was so valuable to me is that, prior to the crown system, I had done a great deal of practice, so having to go through all the lessons (when I could test out) does not feel very constructive to me.

[KatalinaWi1]

Great news ! Hope to see it back soon :-)

[MarceloBdeJ]

Ok, thanks for explaing. This new feature (The keys) is great! Please keep it up!

[knp38]

ahhhhh I really need this back

[DGordonWil]

Please hurry.

[Scharing2]

It is back, you are great. Thank you!

[zseech]

Grazie!!

[PurpleJane]

Thanks so much. I'm giving you a lingot.

[zseech]

(Ho di nuovo le chiavi!)

[Eleanor705171]

Thank you so much for letting us know! Take your time to make sure that the changes that you need to make go smoothly!

[Alternativapet]

Here already came will back.

[Langophobe]

How do you access this feature, is it not available for every language or for everyone?

[Alternativapet]

I think it's going to come gradually for everyone.

[Frivalry]

Is there a way to apply for the A test group? So envy that charmed inner circle! Hope I'm not jinxing any chances to join by saying that ... Sorry if the question has been answered already.

[FowlLanguage]

There's no way to elect yourself into one group or another. They do that to ensure that the results of the test aren't biased.

[Frivalry]

That's what I figured, but can't be blamed for trying. :o) Did successfully apply to a couple calls for Spanish course testing ... Wonder why-oh-why the original individual skills test-out was removed in the wake of the crowns system ...

[FabricioYuji]

damn I only discovered it today, so I finally finished my tree because it was missing less than thirty crowns.

[LavraTa]

Oh noooooes! I had it but now it's gone again! O rage! O desespoir!

[Momph]

So, how do I get bumped into the experimental group instead of the control group? I'd love to try out the test out function!

[Asvinth_]

wow

[RistoMonon]

Test out works on the website but it’s not in the app anymore. The app lost it two days ago.
I am learning Spanish in case the language makes a difference.

[territech]

I have the most current app on my iPhone. In German, after selecting a category, a small orange box appears with options to skip a level or start. In Spanish when I choose a category, the entire screen turns reddish orange and there are two “fast-forward” arrows in the upper right. Touching there opens up the option to skip a level. In both courses, it costs 400 gems. I don’t know if they are phasing in these updates, of if there is a difference in Apple vs. Android - just sharing what I see.