Repeating a level
Until a few days ago, I was able to repeat a lesson to reinforce my understanding of the lesson. Each time I played a lesson, the sentences chosen were different, i.e., they appeared at random. During the last few days, however, when I repeat a lesson, Duolingo is giving me the exact same sentences in the exact same order. This is very unfortunate. I wonder if other users are seeing this new behavior too? I greatly prefer the way Duolingo was before this week, namely, that we could replay a lesson (perhaps several times) for reinforcement, with different sentences appearing in the lesson each time, as Duolingo was using some kind of nice randomization scheme.
43 Comments
This is seriously affecting my motivation too. I got to the point where I don't succesfully finish all my lessons in one try and when I redo it, I still remember the exact sentences. I have the feeling I'm not learning at all. Shouldn't this be in Troubleshooting though? Maybe someone who has the ability to fix this will read it faster...
Agreed, agreed! Duolingo should not be about "memorizing", but with this new phenomenon of repeated lessons, I agree. I should have placed this thread in the Troubleshooting. I am not sure how to move it there, but I will send a note to the "Support" to ask them about this. Thank you!
I have never seen the support team actually reply to a report. They do fix bugs, but I don't think they have the resources to converse with the people who report them. A side effect of us not paying them, no doubt. :-)
Oh, they definitely should add an option to enforce support request with a couple of bucks)
I have noticed this too, which is unfortunate because in some of the levels they test you on some words far more than others. Still, at least I'll now never forget what Lemon is in German
I haven't noticed this because I haven't tried to repeat a level. What I do instead is do a minimum of two "strengthen skills" exercises for each new lesson. I find that the material I have recently been taught is reinforced there, along with a few things from lower parts of the tree. It seems to be working for me.
Thanks for your detailed comment on my post about repeating a level. I am really, really dismayed about Duolingo changing what happens when you repeat a level. It takes away a students' incentive to repeat a level for reinforced practice, because they will just see the same old sentences again, in the same old order. In the past, you could reinforce a skill by repeating a level and focusing on the skill taught in that level. It allowed a student to dive deeply into one topic.
I've noticed that sometimes it's in a random order, and sometimes it's the same the order as the previous lesson.
I have noticed that as well. Or if I'm taking a new lesson and loose my hearts and I go back and just fill in the same answers as before. It doesn't help as much as when it was random.
Same here- exact same sentences. Also, at the same time the number of questions are much lower for new lessons, and some review lessons. You might want to check out this thread, and see if you are also having similar experience.
That is really crazy. I haven't seen such low numbers of questions yet, but I will look.
I noticed this a few days ago and I agree with what people have been saying: It's now feeling like a memorizing exercise rather than learning. I will hope that it's a bug and not a new way of doing things because then the point in repeating lessons is only to pass and move on. Every now and then it will mix it up (ex. Question 1 now is question 3) but with those few exceptions it's the same order. I felt like I was learning before and still sorta do but only when I 'strengthen skills'. Outside of that it's like a machine. High school all over again! I tested it on the app to see if it was the same case and it is indeed.
The flashcards they implemented are wonderful (granted sometimes the definitions on the back are the obscure ones a beginner has really no use for) but they don't like to show the words that need strengthening. If those are what Duo expects us to use rather than repeating a level it will be a great loss.
I have seen that when I fail a review lesson, if I press the try-again button, then it does seem to give me the same questions in the same order. But if I succeed in the lesson, then it gives me different questions.
Did you try pressing CONTINUE instead of TRY AGAIN?
Greg, we are not talking about the review lessons, but rather about the regular lessons themselves. I think that lots of us on Duolingo prefer to play the same individual lesson several times in a row, to completely learn the concept, but this is not possible anymore, because we just get the same set of sentences. This has only been happening for less than a week.
I noticed today that this can actually happen the very first time you do a lesson. I reported it.
I just started seeing this behavior yesterday, although when you first posted this it was working fine for me. This is really unfortunate, for all the reasons you mention. I hope it's a bug that will be fixed soon, and not a designed feature...
Instead of repeating the same level multiple times, go to strengthen my skills and redo them there. You get new, but similar, sentences in random order.
Yes, I am aware of that, thank you! In fact, I do that when an entire skill has been learned. However, while I am working through an individual lesson, I like to repeat the lesson multiple times, and (until last week) we used to see the same effect there too, i.e., a random selection of similar sentences from within the individual lesson.
Before you complete a level, you are able to practice the lessons within that level by typing /practice after the level's name in the address bar.
Would this help you? I do this, and it often throws in new phrases, sticking only to the lessons I know in that level.
Thanks for the tip, BUT that's not what we are looking for. We used to be able to repeat an individual lesson---as many times as desired---and we would get different sentences each time, so it was worthwhile to repeat a lesson. It is (starting this week) no longer valuable to repeat a lesson, because the same sentences come up, over and over again, just the same way.
It seems Duolingo is in a "improve/renovate" stage as of late, because I am in several Group A's currently, including this:
I've been trying to use it fairly often to up any chances of full release, because it is far more useful further down the tree (disappears once you finish the tree -- confirmed with my Spanish course).
I also have a header in recent weeks that is red, saying "French skills" with a picture of the Eiffel Tower and then a button for "start next lesson". It looks very much like yours, but it is red, not blue, but obviously in the same spirit as your Dutch header.
Good to know that I am not alone. I am really bummed out about this new Duolingo style. I have been on Duolingo almost since the beginning. This change is definitely not welcome.
Okay, I understand now, and that is unfortunate. I couldn't imagine why this was changed. It's good to learn new usages/meanings of the same terms, and worse to memorize the same sentences again and again. Duolingo knows this.
In the meantime: Make the most of it.
Learn more expressions at french.about.com and laits.utexas.edu/tex/, and gain deeper understanding from native speakers on Lang-8 and various other multilingual social websites (e.g. LingQ and BliuBliu).
Bonne chance :3
I've been seeing this change, as well, on all three languages I practice. It's a shame because I used my review of recent lessons as a drill before moving on to new content. I could mix the 'strengthen my skill' drills with redoing lessons depending on the difficulty of the lesson or my trouble remembering details, etc. Now it seems the only tool available is the strengthening drill. While those are great, I really liked the flexibility of being able to add specific reinforcement to material where I needed specific help.
I complete agree, Patrick. I really, really hope that this change is only temporary.
I wonder if you are part of a test group. I have been repeating my Dutch lessons over and over, and while I am getting some of the same sentences, I am getting new ones. Ik ben een banaan threw me for a loop. This is the 3rd time I have gone through all 5 food lessons.
I do not know. Clearly other people are seeing this too; just check the other replies in this thread. I hope it is changed back to the random method again soon.... It is good to get surprises. I am happy you are still getting surprises with repeated levels. Thank you for letting us know that.
I am going away for a week or so soon. How can I prevent being sent right back to a previous level?
On the lingot store, you can buy a pass that lets you break your streak for one day, but not for a full week! On the other hand, if you are not worried about breaking your streak, you will be OK to leave for a week and then come back and refresh your skills. The Duolingo platform is pretty flexible. Your skills will only decrease in value if you don't work on the platform after a long, long time.
