Sharing my experience of passing A1 using primarily Duolingo
I had about 3 months of free time (no need to work but still have family commitments) and decides to pick up learning a language. Have a lot of fond memories of visiting the country, so decided to give it a shot. Wanted to do it the low cost way (the cost to take the A1 test was more than all the subscriptions I paid for).
Background
- Native Mandarin speaker
- Lives in the US, learned English since 10yo
- Tried to learn Japanese while in college for one semester and gave up
All in all, I am not really gifted in language learning and only knew "guten tag" prior to embarking on my journey. What I had going for myself was:
- lots of internet resources (including this sub)
- lots of free time (between 4 and 6 hours that I can devote to learning daily)
- no pressure at all
Timeline
- March 21st - started Duolingo and Pimsleur
- early May - finished Duolingo section 2 and Pimsleur level 2 (60 courses)
- end of May - finished Duolingo section 3 and 12 courses in Pimsluer level 3 (total of 72 courses)
- June 7th - exam date
The reason I picked Duolingo is because rest of my family (kids 12 and 10) are using it already, so $99 / year for everyone seems to be a super bargain. I decided to also subscribe to Pimsleur for two months just to have another additional resource.
If the primary goal is to pass A1 test, there are some strategies that one could consider even for complete beginner like me. I think this roughly breaks down into the learning and test prep aspects.
Learning
Pros of using Duolingo + Pimsleur:
- I found Duolingo great to really hammer in vocabularies and not being too intimidating
- Using two different methods does create some complementary effect, maybe not the most learning effective but definitely cost effective
- For beginners I found Duolingo to be repetitive but it helps to build up the basics
Cons:
- I found Pimsleur harder to follow in the beginning. Pimsleur also didn't have enough repetition of exercise to completely DIY
- In the first two weeks I got sucked into Duolingo's gamification and wasted a lot of time doing the stupid Match Madness stuff, etc. This is completely unnecessary and I would have been better served to just do as much lessons as possible
- I had to use verbformen and keep track of my own vocabulary and read on about the grammer rules myself outside of Duolingo
- I've only completed Duolingo sections 3 before I took the test, and now I am about 1/3 into section 4. I think it is better to at least complete half of section 4 before attempting A1
Test Prep
I only started looking into sample tests June 1st, which I think was too late. At that point I had about 1,200 words. I don't think one need to start looking at the samples before reaching that level of vocabulary but I should've budgeted more time for prep. Some more tips:
- Try to complete all the posted sample exams
- Watch the youtube videos that go through the exams afterwards
- Don't sweat too much about the hard grammar rules, especially the verb forms and articles
- Prior to the test I was fearing sprechen the most, but if you know the test format and if you prepare your self-introduction, that's half of the work. In my test group, the other two test takers were completely unprepared and one of them fumbled a lot
- I felt Horen was harder than the samples - so doing more of Pimsleur might help
- There are some key concepts in the test that just won't be covered by these tools alone. For example, in lessen section (available in the sample), I didn't understand what '21.5' was referring to. Do the sample exam and watch some youtube videos on these would help
Conclusion
- It's a great time to pick up a new language in the current environment, there are so many cheap and useful tools at one's fingertips!
- If your goal is to pass A1 - make sure you spent enough time on test prep, it would help you a lot in overcoming the stress
- ... and make sure you have your ID before going to the test center. I didn't check my wallet: had to rush home and just made it in time back for the test :)