Dragoon Modifier - Dragoons level up too quickly?

Playing with hard mode and by the end of the disc 1 I already have Dart's DLV 5 and others 4 and this makes the game less challenging. The thing is last time I played vanilla version was around ten years ago and I don't exactly remember how dragoon leveling works back then but I if my memories correct the first character to hit level 5 Dragoon was Dart and it was around middle of disc 3 or something (with all the high sp additions). I find it very unusual, is there anyone noticed it too?