Is it just me or does it get a lot harder to level up your magic after level 25? I use only magic, mostly destruction and conjuration, but it seems like its taking forever now. My destruction is at 57 only, and i really want to get it all the way up. Anyone got any tips?

Your character level has nothing to do with the effort it takes to level up skills -- it's based on your skill level. The higher the skill level the harder it is to reach the next skill level.

I think he is talking about skill levels.

Destruction does take a long time to level up. Restoration is the only thing slower for me, though restoration is easier to force up (go to a fire trap and heal yourself as you burn). Destruction is just sloooow. I tried summoning creatures and then killing them, and that works but it is still slow and tedious. Just use it all the time, do a lot of side quests, etc, etc, and it will go up. Also, pay a trainer to move it up by 5 each level. This gets expensive, but I think I got 30-40 levels this way and it was worth it.

Conjuration levels up pretty quick, so it shouldn't be a problem. If it starts to lag behind, just get into a combat and cast bound sword over and over again.

What I find that works is casting my summons first, then casting a bound weapon and going in to the fight briefly,
after fight is over, recast summons even if summons is up, and recast bound weapon but only during the next fight.
Use the highest level conjuration spell you can use.....

Grinding Destruction is kind of a pain, really all you can do is use it as much as possible on every passing mud crab. One thing you can do is put Pacify in one hand and Ice Spike in the other hand. Then cast them both on some bear or whatever, over and over, then heal the bear. Also buy training each level if you want.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Lover_Stone

Or not use magic. lol

Get Shadowmere, put the difficulty on Master and spam spells on him. If he does ever get low health, wait 1 hour. I think this works with Shadowmere, but if not I do this with a regular horse and it works fine.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Mage_Stone

...or that one indeed
I prefer the Lover's Stone, as it goes for all skills.

well rested + mage stone = 30% , 15% over lover's


also, if you really want to power level a spell school, stack fortify enchantments until mana costs are zero or near zero and go nuts. I was able to go from 25 to 100 conjuration in about 20 minutes by casting soul trap non stop on mamoths. Note this is very un-rpg and may make the game too easy.