Duolingo Information

How Grading Works

Duolingo is a weekly work habits grade. The week starts on Monday and ends the following Sunday night. You have all week to finish the lessons you need, however if you wait until the last minute Sunday night, the points will most likely apply for the following week and your score for the previous week will not be what you want.

Basically, it is better for you to do it throughout the week than to wait until the last minute.

On average, one lesson can take ten or fifteen minutes, though you can often finish one in less than five. As you complete lessons, you earn XP points. These points will determine your grade. All lessons will give you 10 XP unless you repeat the same lessons multiple times.  You might start getting less and less points. This means you should push yourself to move down the skill tree and learn new skills and words.

 

Points

Grade

70 XP   

4

50 XP

3

11 to 49 XP

2

1 to 10 XP

1

0 XP

Missing Grade

 

Duolingo Tips 

  • Do Duolingo on a computer. In every skill, it has a description of some of the grammar before you see it. This can help a lot.
  • Early on, write EVERYTHING down.  Keep a list of any new vocab as it comes up. Most of the time, the hardest part is the listening section where you must listen to a short sentence or phrase and transcribe it in French and this can be very hard because the sentences are out of context.  If you are unsure of what is spoken, you can make some educated guesses by using your vocab list.
  • All nouns (places, things, objects, people) are masculine or feminine. This means that a table (une table) and a chair (une chaise) are feminine words while a pencil (un crayon) or a notebook (un cahier) are masculine.
    • You can tell that a word is feminine because of the word before it.  Une or La mean it is feminine. Un or Le are masculine.
    • The adjectives will change.

Verb conjugation!  This means the last few letters of a verb (an action) change depending on WHO is doing the action.  In English we often add an "s" at the end of words. Example :  I eat.  She eats.

Same thing happens in French, but there are more options.     Again, make a list of which endings go with which words.
Example :
Je Mange
Tu Manges
Il Mange
Nous Mangeons
Vous Mangez
Ils Mangent


Last but not least!
  • Mistakes are a good thing. It is natural to make from mistakes when learning a language.  Learn from them. Don't just move on to the next question. Look at your mistake.  Know how to fix it so you can do it right the next time.