u/Duracell_Z

I've started with a Dutch language course A2 to B1 in a language school, and we are using De Sprong for our classes. This (regular) course takes 4 months to complete, so I should be finished with it in August. We had a few classes already and finished the 1st chapter, but this seems fairly fast to me considering the amount of new vocabulary I'm encountering.

I've studied before Dutch on my own, so when I was doing A0-A2 course at the same school (this took 6 months) it was very easy because I knew most of the material. Now, the grammar is more-or-less the same, just more practice and some more specific usage. However, I find it very difficult to keep up with the amount of new vocabulary, especially if it happens that I miss a class and need to catch up with the material afterward.

So, I was wondering if I am doing something wrong or is this indeed too fast and I just need to do the best I can?

We usually do speaking and listening exercises in the class, and then for homework we need to do grammar, writing exercises and learn new vocabulary. At home, I first learn the vocabulary from the official vocabulary list for the topic we are doing, and I always try to do the homework before the next class.

I also try to extract new words used in the textbook (from reading exercises etc.) that are not on the "official vocabulary list" because I always thought that we were supposed to do this since they are introducing the new vocabulary to us. However, now I find it difficult to keep up with this because I feel the texts now have a lot of new vocabulary and we are also getting more exercises to do at home. I usually put the new vocabulary into my Anki deck during the weekend, and during the workdays I am studying it, going to classes and doing homework (I also work full-time).

How are you using your textbooks and do you have some tips/strategies?