How quickly should you proceed through the lessons?

[cloclo15]

I started using duolingo to learn Italian three days ago and have already got up to the lesson on time. I learned Latin and French at school and discovered some similarities so found the first few lessons very simple. Should I now stop and practice the lessons I have already done for a while or keep trying the new ones? What would be best for me to learn the language successfully?

[ziggKogg]

I do the following.

New Lesson

• Start 1st set of questions

• Go through (record all mistakes and new words into a notebook)

• If I fail it

• I go to the first lesson in Italian and do the practice all vocab in timed mode, get a certain mini review out of it.

• Then I return to my new lesson and try again.

• If I fail again

• I go to the 2nd lesson in Italian and do the practice all vocab in timed mode

• I repeat until I finish the new lesson

• Then if I complete all of the new lessons, I take a shot at the recommended article.

It takes a while but I find it a useful way to learn new words and review. :D

Do you feel that you are going to fast? But then again you've just completed rather easy lessons so far, later they get a bit more complicated (especially with the grammer).

[liamtbrand]

Good learning plan.. Much better than mine lol, I just do a couple of new lessons a day, and then hit the practice button so many times.. And also I do the ones that have gone color again first, then I start practicing all my words. Seems to be working for me xD

[ziggKogg]

I actually started off like that but recently I've picked up this process.

[liamtbrand]

Yeah, I might start using it haha

[cloclo15]

Thanks, yes the lessons so far are fairly easy, especially since I learned Latin verb tables by drill so the present tense isn't too much of a problem, and I have a good memory for vocabulary. The conjugations and prepositions need a bit of practice though, and I sometimes struggle to hear if the article is being used in the listening activities.
Does the past tense in Italian work like the French? I'm hoping it does as that will make it easier to learn!

[ziggKogg]

Not sure, I haven't started learning the Past tense Italian yet.

[TheGandalf]

Yeah, I just looked and... Why is it WAY down at almost the very bottom of the tree? It seems like it would make sense to learn it before you learn the more complicated tenses.

[rocketthebunny]

Exactly! Luckily I'm only a few lessons away from learning a type of past tense! (per esempio: ho fatto, sono andata, abbiamo comprato, siamo venuti, ecc.)

[cloclo15]

It turns out by past tense in French I meant what is called the present perfect on the Italian skill tree - formed by the auxiliary verb and participle. So I found that section relatively straightforward

[rocketthebunny]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. :D Who else thinks that should be called a type of past tense instead of present tense?

[TheGandalf]

It's a good idea to make sure all the sections stay gold. What I do is try to practice enough to get the previous ones gold again before continuing with new lessons.

[rocketthebunny]

That's exactly what I do :D

[thenino85]

Early on I was lackadaisical about practicing and just kept doing lessons when the lessons were easy. Maybe one practice session for every 5 lessons. It was a huge mistake that caught up with me around the first unlock, and I had to spend a lot of time just practicing (and not progressing) that I probably wouldn't have had to spend if I had just practiced more early on.

You should complete at at least one practice session (i.e. no crying owl) for every lesson you do, and the more heavily weighted towards practice, the better. Yes, the early lessons are easy, but they will be hitting you over the head with it again and again later on, especially with the sugar and various objects to be put into it. The skill tree exists for a reason; if you don't have the early parts down reflexively, you'll be even more confused later on.

[Christine1999]

All your learning plans are so...complicated. Of course, if they help you, there is no problem... But you must be very patient people. Patient and tireless ;). I think every person needs an individual plan, because we are different. So, my learning plan? I have a good memory but I'm not patient, not at all ;). I get always upset, if I fail a lesson. I know that isn't very good, but it's my nature. When I come back to Duolingo site, I practise my weakest words at the vocabulary, then I do two or three lessons and I practise all my skillls. Then I often look at some discussions to have a break and if my head doesn't feel tired, I'll do some more lessons.

[cloclo15]

I also get impatient and want to learn more quickly. I have a very good memory for vocabulary and spelling so I don't find those aspects difficult. The thing I can't get my head around at the moment is piacere - I can never work out who is liking who and what form of piacere I should be using. It is the main thing I get wrong.

I find that I do several new lessons and then do some practice skills. I mainly learn on the iPad and the app doesn't have the weakest words option, just strengthen skills. I don't know if it chooses the skills randomly or chooses the ones I'm weakest at.

[rocketthebunny]

I use the iPad app also. I found out that you can go into any of the lessons you are getting weak on, then tap "Practice Skill", under the trophy. That's what I do when I need to practice a skill on my iPad.

[rocketthebunny]

I'm a pretty impatient person... I know that's not the best thing to be when learning a language, but I am. This what I do every day: 1. Practise all my weakest words and make sure all of my lessons are golden. 2. Do 1-2 lessons. 3. Go around the discussions menu for a little, relax a bit. 4. Do another 3-4 lessons. 5. Immerse. 6. Discussions again. 7. See you tomorrow!

[venciso]

I'm a native spanish speaker so that in itself help already a lot!
I would like to practice more but at the moment I only use duo on my mobile so I don't have access to the timed practice nor the article translation bits.
So my approach has mainly been doing as many lessons as I can and trying to keep everything golden. I'm at the subjunctives now and it's getting quite hard because there's a lot of information to retain, the last part of the tree is grammar grammar grammar, but still powering through! I want to get through the tree and then maybe practice all the tenses again and probably try to get further material to read or listen to. And more importantly speak it with someone!