If you’ve received Duolingo’s brand new learning path update, then one of the main features you’ll have come across is the new-style levels.
Back in the day, levels on Duolingo related to how much XP you’d earned in a language course.
Now, they’ve taken on a brand new meaning. Understanding them is super important if you want to master Duolingo’s new approach to learning languages!
In this article, I’ll give you the lowdown on everything you need to know about Duolingo’s new levels, as well as how they differ to the old ones.
Let’s get into it!
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What are Duolingo levels?
In the days before Duolingo’s new learning path, levels could relate to a couple of different things.
The first was what I mentioned in the introduction — levels used to relate to how much XP you had earned in a language. These levels ranged from 1 to 25. The more XP you earned, the higher your level.
Then came the crowns. These represented levels within a skill, with a maximum of 6 to earn.
But with the new learning path, levels have once again taken on a brand new meaning. Now, a level on Duolingo is a step along the path, represented by a circle.
Each circle contains a different type of exercise. These can include:
Every time you complete a level, you move further along the learning path.
How do Duolingo levels work?
Duolingo levels work differently on the new learning path to how they worked before.
Originally, levels were basically a way of grading you. Again, this either depended on how much XP you had earned in your target language, or how many crowns you had earned.
Now, a level on Duolingo is simply a stepping stone. There’s no grading involved.
The goal of each level is to complete the prescribed number of tasks. Once you’ve done that, you can move on to the next level, until you eventually complete the unit.
Each unit contains roughly 8 levels (depending on your course) and you’ll get a nice mix of content as you work your way through.
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.
For instance, courses like Spanish and French (two of Duolingo’s most popular courses) have the most content and therefore have the most levels.
A course like Navajo, however, which only has 7 units of content, has significantly fewer levels to work through.
Levels vs Crown levels
The new-style levels are very similar to the old crown levels. In fact, they’re basically the same.
The main difference (aside from there not being any crowns anymore) is how they’re organised.
Before the learning path, levels were organised into skills. Each skill had up to 6 levels and you could do all 6 as soon as you wanted.
But with the new learning path, Duolingo have taken these levels and spread them out. This means you can’t just binge all 6 levels in a single sitting. Instead, you complete one level in a skill, then move on to something else.
Eventually, you’ll reach the next level in the skill. And once you’ve completed that, you’ll move on to something else. And so on, and on, and on.
How to skip levels on Duolingo
Skipping levels on Duolingo’s new learning path is really easy.
Well, so long as you know enough of your target language!
If you’re finding the levels and units too easy, then you can easily jump forward to a position further along the path. To do this, simply scroll down to your desired unit, then tap the first level. It should have a big bubble above it saying JUMP HERE.
You’ll then be thrust into a little test that will challenge you with some of the content you’re looking to skip. You won’t get any hints or tips, and you’ll only get 5 lives. This is the same for free and Super members alike.
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. If you already know some of the language you want to learn, then simply tap ‘Already know some…’ and you’ll be taken into the placement test.
Not happy with where you’ve been placed on the path? No problem. You can just jump forward to a unit you’d feel more comfortable with. Pass the test and you’ll be good to go!
Duolingo levels equivalent
If you’re still using the old Duolingo levels as a point of reference, then you might be wondering what their equivalent is on things like the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference).
If you’re a Duolingo veteran or you use sites like duome.eu to track your progress, then you’ll be familiar with the old-style levels.
Notice how in the image below all of my language courses have a level next to them?
As you can see, the levels are determined by how much XP you have in each language course. You’ll notice my Italian course is completely maxed out. No matter how much more XP I earn, I’ll remain at level 25.
However, I currently need 831 XP to move up to the top level in French, and 2556 XP to move up in Russian.
Crystal clear, right? Well, not really. There’s actually a big problem.
Not only is XP a poor measure of progress, the old levels also had a limit. You’d think that my Italian, French and Russian are all at similar levels — but they’re really not. My Italian is by far my best language and the only one (aside from English) I feel comfortable speaking.
My French is absolutely nowhere near as good as my Italian.
Case in point: I spent a bit of time in Nice recently and, while I could understand a lot, I could only speak using basic sentences.
In fact, I’d say my Spanish is better than my French — yet the old Duolingo levels only have me at level 16!
It’s for these reasons that we can’t really find any parallels with the more accepted frames of reference. The old Duolingo levels simply don’t correspond with things like the CEFR.
This is probably why Duolingo stopped using them.
Nowadays, the best way to measure your Duolingo progress is using the path. In theory, the more units (and levels) you’ve completed, the more advanced you’ll be. Forget your XP, it doesn’t matter.
If you’re still on the old tree, then the best measure of progress is your crown total. The more crowns you have, the stronger you’ll be in your target language. (In theory, at least!).
Have your say
What do you think of the new Duolingo levels?
Do you miss the crowns and the original grading approach?
Let me know in the comments!
Hi,
I hate the new Duolingo. It was much better with the old system as you could move around the tree and work on different parts, and now it takes forever to find where you’ve left off getting legendary levels done. It has an arrow that puts you where you are on the path but if you want to go up to where your last legendary level is or the mini star challenges then you have to keep scrolling and on the French path, this takes FOREVER!
Also if you’re a free subscriber (my husband is but I’m not) then they can’t do half of it without paying with gems which are really hard to build up. It asked for 100 for each segment of legendary (8per section) and for the star challenges so it means you can’t complete it. My husband gets really frustrated as you can spend ages saving up all the gems then if you lose your 3 lives you have, to do each section you feel like you’ve wasted it all.
And where’s the progress quiz gone now on the super duo?
Bring back the old one!!!
Noticed the email sent to you? Duolingo said “We are focusing on other super features” and removed the Mastery quiz (I overall like the new update, but it’s so hard to revise anything now). It’s like Coca Cola saying “We are occupied making our new flavour of Coke so we removed the original flavour!”
Hate, loathe & DESPISE the new update. It’s like they discovered the web design for New Coke.
I’m wondering how I can figure out my CEFR (approximate, anyway!) based on my Duolingo work. Is there any correspondence at all?
This is the million-dollar question. Everywhere I find bloggers flirting with it, but not answering.
I have a 2078 day streak. I dislike this new version. So hard to earn gems which have helped me advance. Also miss the “Put it all together” exercises which allowed you to listen and speak in some of the exercises. I thought these were so practical and helpful. I also liked going back and practicing some of the skills that were difficult that I had mastered previously, but needed to review.
I’m considering switching to Babble.
The new Duolingo learning path was created for two important reasons. One, to create a simpler template, so it could be universally applied across different languages. The old tree method had to be customized for each language. Two, to much faster deplete your gem account, so you have to either buy more gems, or become a paid Super learner. The Level Up tests now cost 800 gems (previously 400), there are also Rapid review exercises that cost 100 gems each. You also earn less gems for completing Daily Quests.
The bottom line is, the owner of Duolingo long time ago promised a free language learning app. Therefore, he doesn’t want to break that promise. However, only 6% of Duolingo users are paid Super users. Therefore, the company will use any possible coercion to convert other non-paid users into paying ones, without saying that you don’t have a choice!
Overall like the new path, removes the ‘where should i go next’ thinking. Question, have you heard any feedback on earning the the 3 stars next to each character. In the old version I always earned legendary before moving on and this translated to finishing up Legendary in Level 28. I noticed the 3 stars by the characters were not filled in all the way back up at Level 1 so off I went to ‘complete’ everything (even though it is pretty elementary review). I have to say it seems way way too hard. I got stuck on the 2nd star of Level 3 and even though I was madly matching on my iPad I could not complete the challenge. Anyone else experience this? What is the logic for how many matches is required. The UI does not tell me how many I have left as in the matching exercises from the previous version. Seems crazy that I cannot pass this on Level 3!
Hi I followed you please follow me back, thank you
For the moment it is possible to change back to the previous layout via the so called Schools tab. Works very easily.
Personally I hope Duo take the hint and retain this facility beyond the end of 2022.
The Schools tab is poorly named as it provides the complete course structure for all users complete with word lists. I believe it should be renamed
How can I find the tab? I am a now miserable user- hate the new path- super bored by it and convinced because I was about to finish one of the huge old format units I got rebased wrongly. I do also hope Duolingo will at least appear to care about feedback and consider what they can do for those of us (paying for) and hating the new version!
How can I move back DOWN a few levels? As soon as the update arrived, I took a test and jumped 9 levels. I want to go back down, because I missed a lot of vocabulary and grammar. Italian has beautiful but tricky uses of prepositiions and objects. I want to learn them. Now I’m stuck in the purple “tests” that are boringly repetitive and hard to learn from
Is there a way to move DOWN levels?
Not a fan of the update at all!
I was quite a long way from completing the portuguese course and now within a few lessons I’ve completed the pathway.
I guess I’ll work on the legendary levels which will deplete gems so I’ll have to buy more.
The update is effectively trying to fast track me to being a paying user which unfortunately won’t happen.
I’m very frustrated that with this new version, I’m thrown way back to where I was maybe 6 months ago. Boo on Duolingo. I suggest they did this to make more money. The people that have paid shouldn’t be subjected to this crud. Pv
I also hate the new duolingo. I destroyed my momentum. I had a daily ritual I practiced and I cared about spending time learning the duolingo method. Now I do not care. I have let my 230 day streak go. I can not use it off line. Easy access to the stories is gone. When Duolingo switched over it put me at a level that was not accurate for me and I deleted my course and started over with a placement test. I hate it. Everyone I know that used duolingo hates it.
According to the old version, I had unsigned topics. The new version shows that I passed everything. So the changes affected not only the design.
I have completed Unit 75 in Portugese. Where do I go from here. I’m not seeing any futher levels or units to continue with. How many units at there in the Portugese course?
I have been switched to the new pathway some weeks ago. Today, for no reason, I have been suddenly placed at French Foundation 3 unit 13.
I’m not sure what is going on. Can you please explain.
I am still currently using Duolingo Plus on my apple device. I played around with the Super Duolingo format on my Android phone and I definitely prefer the old Plus version. If I am ever unable to continue using Plus I will consider changing to a different app. I do not use Super Duolingo and I have no intention of starting to. With Plus, I am able to control how I learn and I really enjoy the stories, tournaments, and leagues as well as having crowns. I like to customize my learning progress and speed. I do not appreciate you trying to micromanage our learning with Super.
I totally dislike the new system of levels, which focuses on obtaining a high language level, both speaking, reading, an understanding, without making mistakes. That is not my way of learning a language.
I just want to get a basic level of reading, and understanding, including making mistakes… I started with Norwegian, made good progress in 100 days. Because I have to go back to Sweden for a project i started with Swedish too. Again for basic knowledge, as we will use English for official contacts.
I really miss the level 1 option, please bring it back, or give me the old app back,
Yours,
Ruud
Dutch (native) English, German, French,p (very much faded), Norwegian (Basic course 30 years ago, now brushing it up), Swedish (picked up my words during many bisits)