What kind of a computer program written in the year 2017 is unable to recognize that two answers are completely identical? I use Memrise because there are no other options for learning Swiss (thank you, user Baas!), but I cannot recommend it to others learning other languages due to this flaw. It is extremely frustrating. I am here to learn, not gamble. 
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i think user Baas must have made a mistake, not memrise
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Bull. Shit. Memrise has exactly ONE job… to recognize whether the answer I picked matches the correct answer. Their STUPID algorithym only accepts it if it is in the proper “slot” of its formula… it doesn’t read the answers at all, or it would recognize that two answers are ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL and not mark me incorrect over and over and over and over and over and over and over for NO REASON. Stupidest, most ridiculous computer program I have ever seen in my life. Baas ROCKS, MEMRISE sucks.
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I have encountered this before for some courses… I think it was a Japanese one.
However, in most other cases, it works perfectly fine where all the identical correct options are accepted.
It could be a data issue as @IchigoSmof has mentioned.
I don’t know the exact course that you are referring to, but there could be other fields in which these two “identical” answers differ in the database.
In that case, I would think that the data is handled correctly by having two different entries, even though the column that you are being tested on has identical values in this particular case.
Yes, I agree that Memrise can be improved. But if it really is a data issue, then I think that there is something the course creator can do to solve this.
Maybe you should ask @Baas to check the data?
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Instead of ranting and raving, it would be more helpful if you could do some - or all - of the following:
-
provide a link to the course where you encountered this problem;
-
suggest a solution / solutions to the synonym problem.
I don’t know how old you are, but as a person who grew up and went to school and university in the pre-internet era, I am still amazed and astounded and profoundly grateful that such a thing as a free language-learning resource of this quality even exists.
When I read posts like yours, the image of a spoilt toddler (“There’s a brown spot on my banana, not eating it!”) comes to mind. I can practically hear the stamping of tiny feet from here.
Oh, and are you a computer programmer, too?
Personally, I have no clue how algorithms work, but I imagine you would need a HUGE amount of computer power to teach the algorithm to recognize the differences between ALL the languages that are hosted here. Have you considered that?
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And, by the way, I DO understand your frustration.
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i think people just don’t have any patience with computers because computers are always worse than promised
my idea with this issue:
the memrise software doesn’t compare the content of variables in such a way that a wrong entry by a course creator can be spotted
it is more like this:
q1 = a1
q2 = a2
q3 = a3
…
and if the course creator fills in the wrong values for those variables, than the program doesn’t work
that’s not a memrise problem, it is just the way computers work
computers are dumb machines, you have to tell them everything
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I don’t think it is being spoiled to want a correct answer to not be marked incorrect. It is the one and only job of the memrise program, since they are not making the courses. As for where it has happened, it has happened more times than I can count, all through Swiss German 1, 2, 3, 4, and Swiss German glossary 1 &2. As for how to fix it, all it has to do is look at what you have selected and see if it is absolutely identical to the supposed correct answer. This is a basic function of computers. It is used every time I type in my username and password on every single website in existence. The problem with memrise is that it only accepts the correct answer if it is in the correct “slot” (see IchigoSmof post below). This is a HUGE problem, imho. Words with excatly the same spelling can have multiple meanings or be used in different grammatical cases, etc. What can I tell you? I find it ridiculous and extremely frustrating.
So tell it to check if two entries (the one I selected and the one in the correct “slot”) match.
it cannot do that
the course creator fills in q1,q2, q3… and a1, a2, a3…
if the cc makes a mistake, there is no way memrise can check it
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This is a common problem with many courses. Not just a “course creator problem”, as some suggest. The same word may appear more than once, with slightly different meaning or translation. Consider the words: am, are, is, be, was, were. In some languages they could all be correctly translated to just one word. In other cases, similar words may have different meanings. The algorithym frequently picks similar words, and unless the course creator somehow specifies the difference, which is not allways an ideal solution, I have no way of knowing which one is correct. In fact most of my “wrong answers” are sometimes due to this. I agree that identical answers should be accepted, or preferably that identical answers should not be put together as options. Also correct answers that are not accepted due to multiple meanings should be eliminated. If these things are difficult to program, it may be possible to allow the course creator to manually remove unwanted words from the options.
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I don’t see how your reply relates to the original post, to be honest.
I have tagged you in one of the course forums for Swiss German by @Baas.
I am not sure if I have found the right level, but at least you can voice your specific concerns there.
As far as I can tell, this problem - being given two identical options for one answer - crops up due to the original course creator using an identical definition for two (or more) separate words. I call it “the pesky synonym problem”. I had the exact same problem as you two to three years ago when I started learning Swedish using memrise, specifically, the 8,000+ Most Common Swedish Words course by sehiralti. Back then, however, it was possible to access the forum for the course in question directly from the word itself, which made things much easier than they are now.
I was able to inform sehiralti as soon as I came across a problem and he usually responded quite quickly. I also offered him ways to solve the problem - new definitions etc. - and, finally, he made me into a course contributor for all four parts of the course.
So this would be one way to solve the problem on the level of the courses you are doing: contact the course creator and offer solutions.
However, I agree that there is also a wider problem that relates to the way the underlying programme made by the memrise programmers works. I have seen this problem mentioned time and time again and it does of course frustrate people (as it did me).
So, specifically for these courses that you are doing, I would recommend that you go to the forums for them and mention the specific problems you have encountered - what words, what levels they were in, etc. - and Baas will hopefully find time to fix them.
As far as the wider problem is concerned, maybe you could contact the memrise team directly?
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so the problem is that it works in one direction, but not in the other