by Jon Campbell
Winning the Duolingo diamond league was not as difficult as I imagined it was. It is not on par with getting to diamond league on League of Legends for example (I say not from experience).
I thought that only people glued to the screen for 40 hours a week would win the top league. As many of you know, this is not the way to learn a language. My unwillingness to do this made me assume I wouldn't win it.
My guess was that by maintaining my daily streak, and picking off a promotion here and there, I would plateau around half way up the ten leagues.
The good news is you need not have this commitment to complete the task of the day - winning diamond league. It can be a much shorter pursuit than 365 days.
You can download Duolingo now, and with consecutive promotions and an immediate win when you get to diamond league it will take you 10 weeks.
Here's how ...
Honestly, simply showing up every day and doing 2-3 lessons to maintain your streak will get you past the first few levels.
From then, you'll find that maintaining your streak will keep you in contention. You will need to stick some time in on the last day or two to secure it.
As you start getting into the top 3-4 leagues ... You'll want to get a strong start on the first day, put some distance between you and the rest. Then you can keep up your daily streak through the middle of the week and watch some catch up to you. You might hang on, but keeping an eye on it and keeping yourself in the promotion spots will be the key.
I won my second attempt at diamond after surviving the first time.
The variance of points required to win the league differs drastically.
Here's the league I won slightly before it ended ...
4k points seems low for the diamond league. The leagues below often had people with more than this.
To put it into perspective, look at the league from this week ...
You might say my win was good timing.
There is such thing as an 'early bird' unlock every day.
If you complete a lesson before a certain percentage of people, you get a 15-minute double points which can be used from 6-12 that evening.
I usually used my 15-minute double up towards the end of the day, then done my lesson for the new day shortly after midnight.
There are also random ones that pop up immediately when you open a crate. They are for 15 and sometimes for 30!
Using these is a simple way to efficiently climb the ranks. Double the points is half the time.
Maintain my streak and keep up my language learning whatever direction it goes.
Besides it being a useful daily habit, I don't commit too much time to Duolingo due to its limitations as a holistic language-learning tool.
If you are here though, you probably want to go ahead and win it, so that's how.
Jon is a solo traveller, writer, and budding polyglot from England. Having lived and taught English in China during the pandemic, he is travelling Southeast Asia and writing about language learning and travelling. Find out more on JonInAsia.
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