On the subject of “activity points” I am a little bit puzzled. After I have seen that the one or other member has several thousands of points, some members have five, eight and even ten thousand points, I wonder whether I am using the wrong method. I am member at Lingq since may 2010 and there were times within I have learned regularly two to four hours a day seven days a week. And never I have earn more than one thousand points. Daily I am hearing more than two hours podcasts with my mp3 player during my daily way to work - in depend on traffic jam. I am read different articles and write a lot during my office time as well as create lingq’s and learn vocables almost every day. But never I have earned more than thousand activity points. It isn’t important earning activity points but actually I fear that I am on the wrong track. Particularly I sense that my learning isn’t so successfully. What am I doing wrong?
Horst,
As you know, activity score is the total of created lingqs, learned lingqs, number of submitted to correction words and (number of 15-min discussions)*60
The less you know the language, the more LingQs you create => the bigger activity score you have.
The more you submit for correction, the bigger your activity score.
Listening does not counted into the score, while it is the crucial activity. You can spend whole evening reading some content and creating lingqs, but then, if you don’t listen to it, all of these earned activity points will mean almost nothing.
As far as I know activity score are shown for the last 30 days, it means if you do today a LOT of them- in a month they will rapidly go down, unless you will have made a LOT of them again. Anyway, I don’t care much about them- but about what I really got in my target language in a certain day.
Расана,
Many thanks for response. Do I have this right activity score doesn’t mean anything to me about my language skills or the best method I should learn? I would be glad to that.
Hello Horst, in the help is something written about activity points: http://www.lingq.com/help/de/community/#community_1
You shouldn’t take them to serious because the activity points show only how active you are on LingQ. Your other activities don’t influence the activity score even if they influence your language skills. The best method for you is the method that works for you and the method that suits your goals.
I’ve had times when my activity score has been over 3 000. It wasn’t so much that I was learning fast - just creating a lot of LingQs, mostly while watching TV Burp. A lot of those linqs I have since deleted because they were unimportant words. If my score is over 2 000 I figure it is good, and these days that won’t even keep me in the top 20 learners.
Steve, when his activity points are higher than mine, has usually done it by submitting a lot of writing. I could submit a lot of writing and get a lot of activity points too…if I had a lot of points to spare and felt like doing some writing. As I’m cheap and lazy I have to let him beat me in the Honour Roll.
Bottom line is, the activity ladder is a game. Enjoy it or don’t play, it’s up to you.
It wasn’t just a question for me of playing a game. I had only figure out whether my method is wrong or not. But if activity ladder is only a game and don’t mirror real learning activities in any case - then I can remain calm, can’t I? My question doesn’t point at better score but more my feeling that I am not very successfully in my language learning. Pls don’t understand me wrong I appreciate the Lingq system. And one of our all learners goal should be to optimize our method. And sorry but activity score is noticeable. If I see that someone has earned more than 10.000 activity points and I compare it with my effort with “only” one thousand points my question is valid. In the end I am highly pleased with your all answers. Thanks a lot.
My husband says that the activity ladder is an obsessiveness indicator, and that if I make the top 20 then I’m working too hard 
If you spend much of your time listening to slightly hard material, some time reading and the rest of your time reviewing vocabulary then you will learn. More time = more learning. I don’t think we can be more definitive than that,
Your activity profile for both Russian and English look good. YOu should be making good progress with that activity.
I read somewhere that the member with more than 10000 points just imported a vocabulary list he’s going to work on, so it does in no way reflect real learning activity. I think that as long as you keep listening, LingQing and learning some words and occasionally write and speak, your method will show good results, even if you are not among the top 20 (and this also depends on the time of the year, I have noticed). You can easily get into the top 10 when many people are on holiday in the summer :))
Helen I am afraid that your husband are right but I am bowing to your great deal of language work. And Reinhard, yeah, its a very good idea - in this way I could stand on the winners’ podium midyear.
Without joke, indeed, my goal isn’t winning the game but progress first my english skills and second broaden my knowledge in Russian, French and Spanish. I know that I shouldn’t guided by high score lists. I hope that I am out of this age meanwhile. Thanks for all encouraged words.
It’s an interesting paradox, I do exactly what Steve recommends – reading and listening, and I do a lot of it, as much as I can but my activity score hardly ever exceeded 300 points.
Hi Victor, it’s great what you are doing. This will help you a lot! But if your interest is to have more activity points you should start to create and learn more LingQ’s. If you save 20 LingQs a day and learn 10 LingQs a day, your activity points will increase → 2030 + 1030. If you have 2 conversations a week (about 9 a month) your activity points for this activity will be 9*60 = 560 points. If you submit 500 words of writing a month the activity points will increase → 500 points. This way you will have 1960 actiity points. Do this help you? Is your goal to have a lot of activity points? I think if you improve in another way it’s fine! Do things that work for you! Don’t think too much about activity points. This is my opinion.
Thank you, Vera, I will think about all that. My ultimate goals are nearly-native listening comprehension and reading without diving in a dictionary every minute. Writing and speaking are not my priorities althoug if they come as a windfall I don’t mind then.
I’m doing nothing special, just lingqing and flashcarding on daily basis. Also I have 1-2 discussion in a week and submit 2-3 of writing exercises in a month.
I had no lack of unknown words both in Italian and English for a while :))) I always think I have quite good vocabulary in English, but recently Tomas Soyer completely ruined my self-confidence :))))))) Number of lingqed words for the Chapter5-6 was really stunning…
But may be at Advanced levels it will be hard to find what to lingq, I don’t know. =) But if you are already fluent it is a time to start studying of another language, isn’t it?
Ooops, I misspelled Tom’s lastname! It seems I should lingq it :))
By the way, now 8-10 places are taken my Russians.
mikola 3620
Cakypa 3599
Niksa 3473
Go, Russia, go!
That’s a good idea. We should play our Lingq high score according to Olympic Charter. True to the motto “dabei sein ist alles” ore “Cool Runnings”
And with Tom Sawyer I had the same experience. In my oppinion it is written in an old-fashioned language and it is incapable of serious work like some wonderful German fairy stories or classic literature like “Die Buddenbrooks”.
Would it be a good idea to track LingQs created by country?
Yes and no! I guess that it could be both a great joke and it could lead learner on the wrong track. You can see above that I was a bit puzzled as starting this discussion. I am a little bit indecisively at the moment.
Sometimes I think that I am learning less than I did a few months ago, even though my activity score is higher now than it was a few months ago. I am creating more LingQs now, but learning less of the LingQs that I have created. It seems almost like I am being overwhelmed by the number of LingQs I am creating. I may be moving to new content too quickly, I must figure this out.
Sometimes I want the creating of LingQs to be worth less activity points than the learning of the LingQs that you’ve previously created, I think for me that would more accurately reflect my learning.