Ciao ๐
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we've all been there:
sweating away in the last hours of the Diamond league, hoping to snatch the top spot ๐ฅต
it can be hard going, especially when the XP totals are so high
it kinda takes away the fun of both the learning and the competing, forcing you to take shortcuts to earn as much XP as possible ๐
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well...
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what if there was a way you could go back to good old-fashioned learning... while still being competitive in your leagues? ๐ง
for this you'd need to get yourself into some more relaxed leaderboards...
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and the good news is that they are out there -- even at Diamond ๐
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and while there's no guaranteed way of getting yourself into these easier divisions, there are a couple of theoretical steps you can take to increase your chances...
the problemo
you know how it gets
those leagues can get super competitive
they trigger some primal, dog-eat-dog instinct inside of us that means we have to overcome everyone around us
even if it's at the expense of actually learning our target languages ๐คฆ
it's why I don't really bother with the leagues anymore -- they're more of a distraction than a help nowadays
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why?
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because XP is the currency of the leagues
the more you earn, the higher you climb
but the thing is: the best ways to earn XP aren't always the best ways to learn your lingos
it encourages shortcuts, finding the easiest ways to earn the most XP in the shortest time possible
so when everyone around you is in that competitive state, you all end up doing the same things
which isn't really great for anyone
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and yet... there's definitely a lot of merit to having this kind of competition...
...so long as it's encouraging the right things
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namely: healthy learning ๐ช
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the goal, therefore, is to try and get ourselves into leagues with users that are also of the same mind
those that like the competition... but who are still gonna put learning their lingos before all else
the solution
so how can we do this?
well, first off, there's no hard and fast rule
it's all theory developed from my own experience and the experiences of those in the Duolingo Subreddit
it's been like this for years
and it follows just two steps:
1. delay joining your league
you might remember this one if you've read my bumper leagues articleโ
every Monday, your Duolingo league resets and you get grouped with a fresh batch of users
however, this only happens after you complete your first lesson
this means you'll get grouped with users completing their first lessons at the same time as you
so, what you wanna do here is delay joining your league for as long as possible
if you wanna keep your streak alive, this means leaving your first lesson until the very end of the day
why?
because, in theory, the most hardcore users will be bashing out lessons earlier in the day
they're not usually leaving it until they're about to go to bed!
so by waiting until the end of the day, you're increasing your chances of getting placed in a more casual league.
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the other step is to...
2. earn less XP
this one will definitely sound counter-intuitive, but hear me out:
you may have noticed this yourself, but Duolingo seems to make a note of how much time you spend on the app each week, as well as how much XP you earn
in the quests, for instance, the users that work the hardest tend to get the hardest daily, weekly and monthly requirements
this seems to apply to the leagues as well.
the users that earn the most XP each week seem to get grouped together with other XP-junkies
what this means is that, by keeping up with the crazy XP totals, you might actually be doing yourself a disservice for the following week's league ๐ณ
it's like a self-defeating spiral where the XP totals just keep going up and up
so to get yourself out of this tailspin, you might need to reign it in a bit
that means spending less time on Duolingo so it has chance to register your new normal
and yes... that might mean getting demoted a couple of times, which might be a knock to the ego... but it's one step back to take a few more forward ๐ช
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again, all of this is just theory
but it's held pretty true for me over the years
and, again, there's a lot of talk about it in the Duolingo Subreddit
you might not notice a difference to begin with -- it might take 2-3 weeks for Duolingo to realise you're taking it easier than before
but eventually you should see a difference in both the competitiveness of your leagues and the difficulty of your quests
i've only won the Diamond league a couple of times, but both times I did so with a relatively modest total...
just under 3000 XP is still a lot more than I'm pumping out nowadays, but it's still a lot more manageable than some of the 5-figure numbers I've seen lately!
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give it a go and see how you get on ๐