Hi, could you pls adjust the English definitions of the following Italian words to make them more discernably discrete from each other??
Lvl. 26, words effettivo through to l’efficienza
I was basically just stuck in a loop trying to get out of the lesson because I was trying to guess which multiple choice option was the correct one.
May I suggest eliminating one or the other word, not having both, or perhaps the primary meaning is put first amongst the list to make it more obvious?
Thanks.
added ascertain. Some dictionaries agree.
To start with, I’ll want to keep some alternatives here. IMHO it’s nice to have a broader spectrum of possible translations at hand. Here’s a general observation: I guesstimate that ~50% all Italian words have an English cognate due to the influence Latin and French had on English. Some of these words are of course exclusive to academic texts. However, I chose not to go the route you propose here. I don’t wanna prepare students for the SAT or GRE vocab sections 
That adds unnecessary challenges (not only for ESL I might add 
)
added effectively, essentially, basically
Hope that makes it clear. Thx for pointing me to this issue.
Hence the [not xxxx] part. Please take these into account before answering. This is not so much a synonyms section, but a technocratic solution to the problem you encountered: people mix up similar entries (be it words with identical meanings, overlapping translations, false friends, or just words that sound similar) You may also take a closer look to PoS information. This is sometimes equally helpful (here not so much). I’ve double checked: technically, there’s no need to pick the wrong answer here - entries were unambiguous. However, I understand what you want to say (
efficiency is not necessarily the same as effectiveness).
Is that what you meant by
eliminating one or the other word, not having both?
'Cause I won’t delete Italian vocab here - wanna keep the original selection of words as listed by my primary source.
Thx for telling me. I really appreciate it 
Could you pls refine the word groups to fewer synonyms and more definitive associations? Or change what is offered as choices?? I am finding it now extremely annoying when trying to learn the words but there’s so much reading to do with the long lists of [not] words after, and I only have so much time trying to sort through a long index.
Even worse during the speed reviews. Some times I am just picking out of randomness, rather than actually being able to see everything. If possible, it would be best to toggle all choices to be completely different words, because I am reflexively clicking the first thing I see, and don’t have time to read the long shopping lists after.
This should be more about learning the words, rather than winning from luck and narrowly missing tricks.
Hi TanteParole,
thx for your feedback. I do appreciate it. I don’t know if you’ve ever made a course but here’s my personal experience: I find it increasingly difficult to get around Memrise’s limitations the larger a course becomes. Memrise offers no tool or any sort of help when it comes to similar and/or identical words. Basically, there’s two or three strategies to mitigate the issues you seem to be frustrated with:
I’m aware of the problems and shortcomings but I yet need to come up with a better solution. And in the end, let’s face it, I’m the dictator here. The course is optimized to my approach to learning, my vocab needs, my learning goals, my reading speed, my preferred quiz mode and my choice of an OS. I guess, that’s all very subjective. However, I can provide you with the raw course data though, so that you can fork this course. I’d be delighted. The more alternatives, the better.
All that being said, I will still try to optimize entries. If learners tell me entry xy is too similar to another entry, or it’s definition (+answer hints) is confusing; I’ll take a look at it. It’s just that you need to understand that there’s no best solution to all of everyone’s problems.
Ciao @TanteParole,
How funny that you should have a handle name of “Lots of Words” yet that is the thing you don’t like.
Anyway I don’t know if it will help but :
Clicking the “More”/ “Less” button might help?
I find that I review by level not by course and this helps. (Not sure if that is relevant.)
You can turn the timer off.
We are fortunate that there are many other great community-created Italian courses around (some I support) which might work better for you. (Perhaps shorter courses might work better for you.)
Anyway it seems that @Robert-Alexander might be able to help.
In boca al lupo! Glad you found this great course by Robert.
haha TOUCHE. Well, unfortunately, my brain is not a neural net processor, so I can only take in so many words at once on the screen, scrolling and deciphering all while time is ticking!
Are you sure you’re talking about the right course?? Or are you a paying member with access to other options I don’t have?? What do you mean review by level and not by course? Each level is a letter, and all the letters make up the course. I also do not have an option to turn the timer off. If I did, it would defeat the entire purpose of doing a speed review!
This course is definitely great, PLENTY of words!
Hi Robert,
Sorry for my attitude yesterday, I had completed a bunch of speed runs and many times I knew what I was looking for, but only after getting it wrong (sometimes fatally), I’d realize it’s because there was a near identical entry beside it with only slightly different hint words, and if all offered answers were different I would have picked the right one. And that’s what triggered me!
Thank you for your kind and well organized reply in spite of this!
So as for the current issue…I don’t necessarily want it too simplistic, definitely not so, but just enough hints to distinguish from other synonyms. If not, is there a way to adjust the timer for longer definitions? That way you get to keep all your words, no rework, just adjust the timer. At least give users time to read and click the one they can consciously discern is correct.
Another thought I had (if possible) would be to create two speed tests. One where no synonyms (or too alike definitions) appear as choices. And then a second which tests the more advanced people. Perhaps the current set up could be the “advanced” speed test. Or maybe a synonyms-ONLY could be an advanced test. And then I guess you’d have to wait for user feedback to determine what timer setting would be appropriate for this sort of test. I realize this may be a lot of work, but I hope at the very least these help to spark something for you!
Thank you for your continued efforts.
Sorry for my attitude yesterday
That’s OK. I know how it is… frustrating at times
I don’t necessarily want it too simplistic, definitely not so, but just enough hints to distinguish from other synonyms
If you find an entry where I need to add another answer hint, please report. I’m sure I’ve overlooked many…
just adjust the timer
I don’t know how to do this. Anyone?
create two speed tests
You realize that I’m not part of the developer team, right? I’m just a dilettante creating a random Italian course. Certainly, you’ve some awesome ideas. I too have two or three ideas how to quickly improve Memrise. There are plenty of nice ideas swirling around in this forum. Much recommendations were made to build better database (and db tools), improve the presentation of content and provide more options to both creators and learners. Unfortunately, very few of these ideas are actively pursued by the developers. This is just how it is…as sad as this sounds. Memrise always had the potential to become the Wikipedia for vocab learning. Instead the team chose to go down a different path …
WOW, the Memrise forum is hard to navigate! If I wasn’t so eager to post I would have simply just given up!
So, after months away, I decided to get back on this a couple months ago, and now I have FINALLY FINISHED!!
Thanks, Robert, for your hardwork and providing the course! It was a pleasure!
Hi, is there a version of this course with the words in frequency order?
Hi Dylan, thanks for asking. It offers me the opportunity to explain this again. You’re not the only one who has asked that before (read posts above). But I totally understand why people keep asking 
Currently, there’s no such course. As far as I’m aware of… Unfortunately, the original source wasn’t providing the exact order of words. The data is only split into the two categories “high frequency” and “medium frequency” as described in the course syllabus (level 1). I must admit, that I dislike the alphabetical order, too. I recommend learning the vocab list in an “erratic” way. Do some of the vocab in A, then jump to G, then L, then jump back to A. This approach won’t make learning and reviewing vocab exciting but it’s less annoying than sticking strictly to the original order.
One user in this very thread pointed out that there’s another source offering a frequency based ranked list. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of this list at the time of designing this course. You can find this list at the University of Leeds Kelly page I don’t know whether someone already made a Memrise course based on this other source.
Sorry, if that’s not the answer you hoped for 
Ok thanks - it looks like a much better course than the one I’d been doing (2000 italian words by frequency - which as far as I can tell is the 2000 most common words in English translated, often badly, into Italian, quite often not into the most common Italian equivalent), but I’m never going to learn 5000 words in the timeframe I’ve set myself. I’m sure there used to be a way to ask to be added to a course as a contributor (I did it once for a similar German course), but I’m not sure how these days.
Keep up the good work!