Now, I would venture a guess that it allowed them to inflate their subscriber count for the last quarter and with the three-month trial extending past the rollout date and given that not everyone in the trial would remember to remove their cards, it means their numbers can be inflated well into 2023. In August, I wondered why they were offering three months instead of one because a $13 value is closer to the T-Mobile average than $39. After they pushed the update to me I removed the card from my profile. In truth, I liked it until the update from hell. So, I gave Duo my card and it said it would bill me in November. I had never heard of Duo but what caught my eye was the fact that the nominal value of the comp was $39. One Tuesday in August, it offered a three-month trial to Duo. Usually, it is a BOGO at a fast-food joint, a couple of prints at CVS or two bucks off at Dunkin or some such. T-Mobile offers free-ish stuff every Tuesday. but I am hoping when I am done with the current Italian block that they will offer a test and I will get a certificate.Īs for the credit card. ![]() This took enough time that I am not inclined to repeat the process for A2, B1. In any case, I passed the test and it sent me a link to download an A1 certificate in French. Then when I finally got to the last lesson in the A1 block it offered me a test and told me something like I can only take it twice in so many days. So, I ended up clicking ahead on lessons for several minutes. Instead, it started me at the first lesson. It could be I did something wrong, or it could be that it's a fault of their UI. When I added French (a language in which I can hold my own) to my Busuu profile it did not offer me a placement test. Here is why I think that the certificate is forthcoming. What they have done is to delete some negative comments here. They could have grandfathered existing, paying customers into their old layouts until they finished the courses that they paid for, they could have offered refunds, or they could have given fair warning and said that they will sunset the old courses in six months or a year or at the end of the current subscriptions. I got here only after reading about the revolt here in Bloomberg.Ī decent company would have done one of several things. Initially I thought it was just me who hated the new stuff (I am a lot older than the typical user and I don't need all the motivational stuff that kids seem to crave). Then they pushed the new path to me and at the same time they made other changes like cranking up the repetitions to 8 to achieve legendary and the removal of grammar tips that appear to do nothing but increase revenue.īut what really soured me on them though was how they have handled the fallout. ![]() I had a free three-month trial which I had intended to continue. Duo is NOT really focused on teaching the language I am trying to learn.Īnd no, I have never paid for Duo and never will. Worse, judging by the discussion that is locked, these errors are long standing. What it does do a lot is to mark correct answers wrong in cases where there are multiple correct answers because the exercises are ambiguous. Clearly if they allowed me to jump around then determining my level would be problematic.ĭuo has never offered me a test in its Italian course. They had me take a test to place me when I subscribed - (B1 after ~40 units of Duo) - and it looks as if they will test me again at the end of this "block" of lessons and give me a B1 certificate when I pass. I think that I know why Busuu lays out their course as they do. ![]() Duo is lazy in that it relies on its AI / machine learning and it's not all that good. ![]() But I have yet to see a correction where all I get is the correct answer as Duo does. So, you are correct that not all exercises are corrected by humans. I would like it better if Busuu let me choose the lessons to take (and that is a negative for me) but it is outweighed by the other things I mentioned in my last post). And frankly, as a decidedly nerdy, left-brained kind of guy who values substance over form, the look of the site is not a big issue for me. The poster who said it reminds him/her of Candyland was spot-on.
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