If you are playing a game, the appropriate question is, “am I having fun?”
If you are playing an e-sport, the appropriate question is, “am I doing worse than everyone else?”
Think about what you are trying to do so you know which question to ask yourself.
That sounds about right.
What you’re doing wrong is worrying about your /played in the first place. Stop. Relax. Breathe. Take your time.
Classic didn’t have all the instant gratification garbage you get in Retail. It took a long time just to level. The game was about the journey. Enjoy that journey!
Happy Gaming. 
what’s good the journey if it isn’t really that enjoyable
Perhaps Classic just isn’t for you.
The journey is what brought players to the game then. It’s what players fell in love with and told their friends about. It’s what caused the game to bring in the millions of players for the “peek” of the game. All the QOL “improvements” that ruined that journey are what caused the game to begin, and remain in, the decline we have in Retail today.
Go play retail. There’s no journey there.
Happy gaming! 
What you are doing wrong is basing your performance on some internet meta.
Play, enjoy, don’t look back
Just here to co-sign the others saying it isn’t a race. 
Take your time, smell them roses. Burn out is a very real thing.
I was doing this. Have my profs, primary and secondary, past 150, and I was doing some grey quests just because I wanted to know the lore I had missed.
But something strange happened at level 30, went to hillsbrand, and everything started going super super slow. I figured I would just have to grind hillsbrand from 30-35, and then go to arathi, but omg - it’s like the level bar just wouldn’t move and it took the another week to get to 35.
I mean, it took me a week to reach 30, another week to reach 35 . . .
I just couldn’t accept that was normal.
Then last night, someone in my guild, at level 52, said:
I think I’ll level up an alt since no one in the guild is pushing hard a paladin.
THAT HURT. It really hurt. 8 days played and told I’m not pushing hard.
I agree and I think my error was focusing on yellow and orange!
I was so upset last night that I downloaded Azeroth Auto Pilot to see where it would send me. It sent me to desolace! Where everyone tells me to avoid!
So I went there, bunch of quests and mobs, all green.
One hour later - ding!
Two hours later - ding!
That’s when I said to myself:
Ok, you can’t focus on a single zone, you need to bounce zone to zone finding the green quests.
Your post is like confirming this was my big mistake.
I think it is, I really do.
But I also like feeling that I am being efficient - and I wasn’t being efficient.
That wasn’t fun.
Then, having people tell me I’m not pushing hard or taking the game seriously stings even worse. I’m beginning to sense social pressure that I should be higher.
So a big part of this isn’t retail vs. classic, it’s that I’m unsatisfied with my progress, realized I wasn’t being efficient, and people were looking down on me.
Those don’t sound like good friends to me.
It’s not friends, just a guild I joined, thinking of finding another one.
But the person who said it was then told off by officers, so I think it’s more this one person in the guild. It really stung though.
I found it was much quicker to start a zone over leveled for it by a few levels so the starting quests are green for you, then you can stay in that zone longer and not have to bounce around from zone to zone.
I also didn’t touch any professions until 60, I forget the exact time /played but like 7ish to 60.
That’s what I discovered last night. I had always been trying for yellow and orange, and instead went to desolace last night at level 34 - I dinged twice in one night. My time estimation to level went from like 10 hours to 2!
I didn’t start STV till I was like 35 or 36, and then just stayed till almost 40
The trick to classic is that unlike retail, 60 is the end game but not the whole game. There’s so much to see and do and try that you may not have before, and it’s worth it to take your time and enjoy the walk. Don’t feel like your method is wrong, or that you were being ineffective. Instead know that it’s just different.
The ping-pong advice just makes it a bit smoother on the nerves, to help avoid burn out when your level doesn’t move as fast as you’re expecting There’s a painful slow-burn between 30-40 and again at like 55-60. So if other people are burning through levels, it’s not because you’re playing incorrectly
Once you get your hands on that shiny, shiny mount, it’ll feel like a grand game changer for at least the next 15 levels. Then you’ll hit that burning desire to be 60 and it’ll be painful again. Then, you’ll hit 60 and realize how much more there is to do - Ony and Mc attuments, rep grinds, epic mount money grinds, gear building…
So take as long as you think you need. Besides, the vast majority of every server are in the 25-45 level range right now
From what I’ve seen mid-high 30s seems to be the average about now
Even if using a guide and taking the optimal path, speedrunning leveling isn’t exactly fast
I wouldn’t worry about it unless you are going for the speedrun thing (which usually requires a lot of playing time in one setting)
I wouldn’t worry to much. I was here when this launched and my rogue is only lvl 13, with this alt being like… 12-14 (ignore what my account says, cause I’m lazy and don’t ever logout of the forums, so it never updates). That is a grand total of like level 25 or so.
The end is to just enjoy the game and go at your pace. Don’t feel like you gotta keep up, burn yourself out, and just not have fun. It can happen if you go at a faster pace then what you can handle. I’ve experienced that with other MMORPGs.
Just do you & have fun!
Odd, it says you are level 100.
Not sure how we can help with that
yeah but it also says I’m 53 and I’ve been 60 since sunday… so idk. lol
It took me over 30 days /played to hit 60 when the game was released. There’s no reason to rush and you should be leveling your tradeskills too.
Sounds like too much AFK or really inefficient routes. I have 5 days and I’m 40. At least 0.5-1.0 days of that is just standing around waiting, forming grps etc. My pally is going even faster, but I know all those low level quests now and when to make those runs to the cities to talk to npcs.
This is normal for normal players.
30 is when a lot of people give up due to the time investment. Level 40 will prune out even more. Numerically, 44 is the halfyway point between 1 and 60 (xp needed).
Ignore the flexing guildie that’s not happy with his own situation of blasting ahead of his guild.
If you’re having fun > continue doing what you’re doing.
If you’re really worried about being behind (you aren’t behind) then start spamming dungeons I guess. I see people always claiming that’s the fastest xp, no time wasted traveling, etc. so maybe they’re right. Good luck with that, and have netflix on hand.
If it’s just FOMO then rest assured, you are currently in the majority level range.
Note the complaints online have started “I rushed to 60, I’m bored, no tanks are available for dungeons, can’t get a group” etc. I don’t see what’s fun about that myself.
You’re only going to have that first Classic journey once. Good luck.