So recently I finished the Hebrew course and I thought I'd write a review about what I thought.
First off, I'll say it is grammar intensive. I wouldn't start this course if I was just looking to travel to Israel. While greetings might be helpful, you probably don't want to get into all the nitty gritty of all יש לי, יש לו and the prepositions etc.. You won't know how to ask for the bathroom until you get down to Home which is 31 skills down the tree from the beginning of the old tree, before the one path. They do do a skill on Israel, right at the end of the tree which covers such things as matqot and bissli.
Holidays aren't until the second last skill. Whereas I was hoping to encounter Moshe and some real traditional people like Rashi from Israeli culture. There was a mere mention of Egypt in the in the holidays and one encountered Sarah and Avraham early on but not Yitschaq. Then again not all Israelis are religious but I like the flavor of the traditions.
If one really wants to learn Hebrew just for a holiday, I would recommend Hebrew for 10 minutes a day by Kristine Kershul for such words and phrases as כמה זה and איפה.
Duolingo's course is for those who are in love with Hebrew. That want to read it, to write, hear it and to an extent to speak it. The speaking isn't the most focused on part, for two reasons, no microphone practice and also all sentences are prerecorded by natives which is an advantage for native speech accent and intonation and a disadvantage for speed! The turtle cannot be found. One definitely needs to try one of the outside decks that cover Duolingo words with audio to bridge the gap for pronunciation. There is transliteration in the sentence discussions for most sentences.
While I can't say how well the characters work because I started before they were rolled out, I do recommend them for working on pronouncing those harder letters, the rolling resh ר, the loch Het ח and the different common syllable accented in Hebrew than in English.
Those first few skills are really hard, learning to write on a keyboard, no there wasn't a wordbank when I started. I would be writing down a sentence on paper and typing it in because I simply couldn't get the listening exercises at first. The wordbank has actually helped me listen better and be able to get a certain amount of sentences correct on the first go now. However I need to go back and learn how type each word as well.
I'd say the hardest for me were the verbs, you learn 9 lessons at once. That hits you quite a bit and then there are lessons of each different tense of the verbs. It seems they like to pick verbs with similar letters in the same lesson. While this might be easy for the teacher to cover them like that. For the student I find it confusing. The adverbs are probably the next hardest. 9 lessons at once also with a lot of phrases, כל כך and לאו דווקא etc.. Once you get a hang of the verbs they are pretty easy, it just kind of deluges you at first. And the adverbs do come into focus after a while as well.
Hebrew has pretty good framework of meanings of words ך- suffix, your singular, masculine or feminine depending on pronunciation, י-suffix, my neuter gender which are like puzzle pieces which fit into different words to identify you, me ect.. Hebrew is a language where pronouns are often suffixes.
The Hebrew tree/path is old style and a first tree which has never been upgraded. It has some mistakes. What this means is everything is lumped into heaps. Massive lesson amounts. 9 lessons per skill is not uncommon. I believe there is even one that has 11 lessons. Not for the faint of heart! But you can do it! You can succeed in Hebrew if you want too! I have. Your Hebrew skills will definitely improve if you stick it out. Just don't expect a lot of cute pictures for word definitions or other things in this course. They are adding more though so that is improving. A plus side for those who don't like aminations. There are none! There is one male speaker and one female. There is a few sentences by another male which were corrections to the audio in the course. I guess if you spaced out all those lessons you'd get more crowns, but even 504 seems like a lot. That is if you're still into to crowns with the new update.
The Duolingo course is pretty comprehensive for Hebrew. Despite looking like a shorter, not the shortest tree, those big skills include a lot. Geometry, sports, arts. With a total of 2833 lexemes approximately that's at least an A2 level when you finish if all those words fit into the normal category for A2. I don't know much about CEFR.
For some people the occasional voiced word in the word banks scares them when all others are silent. Culprits of this ado include אבל and זה. Myself I hope for more voiced words.
The Hebrew tree teaches you formal Hebrew and everyday Hebrew. I do think there are some common words like slang and that the course doesn't teach. Some words are colloquial for certain areas and other Hebrew speakers don't use them. There aren't any idioms or sayings for extra skills. Just plain old Hebrew.
The Hebrew course employs the same quirky sentences that characteristic of their courses. The duck ברווז features the most predominately in the Hebrew course. He suffers all sorts of indignities and experiences all sorts of situations. He is illegal at one point. Oh, and there is also a guy importing spiders!
Is Hebrew fun to learn? That depends on your perspective and whether you like Hebrew characters. Hebrew characters were adopted in Babylon over 2,000 years ago from the Aramaic script. Before that is was paleo script and pictographic. So this is a truly ancient language that has been resurrected. For those interested in the Bible while modern Hebrew isn't the same as classical, you'll find a lot of words you'll find in the Tanakh. There are some grammar and word forms that I understand are different. But it's like the cherry on top when that word you learn relates to one from the Old Testament.
What's your motivation for learning Hebrew? Mine mainly has to do with Biblical Hebrew and the fact that Duolingo is one of the few free courses online for Hebrew. Of course writing and speaking Hebrew are fascinating and so much fun too!
All in all the Hebrew course, isn't easy but then Hebrew isn't the easiest language to learn in the first place. It might be easier if you took the characters first. Definitely take a typing course if you're going to be doing this course at the higher levels. [Not sure how that is with the one path. That might have been destroyed.] The course is pretty intensive, but you learn a lot and have a foundation for more study in the future. Sentence discussions are your friends for sentence quirks and transliteration. Be prepared to learn the audio with flashcards or check out forvo if you don't know the pronunciation. I don't recommend the one path for a course with that many lessons to a skill, it's nice to mix it up! [Unless they split skills. I haven't really looked into the one path. I'm sticking to my trusty tree.] Don't hang on the Hebrew course when going to Israel, unless you have a year or two beforehand. Try the book I recommended or Pimsleur or Ulpan. Want to read Hebrew texts try Duolingo. Of course there's a lot more words than Duolingo teaches to be able to read extensively, but it will set you on the right path. Don't try too hard. Know your limits so you don't get burn out. Don't expect to progress like you would in an easier language. Take your time. And תיהני have fun!
בהצלחה בדרך שלי בעברית.
Might write part two when I get all my crowns! 
L1 
Advanced beginner 
