I’m doing the Russian 1 memrise course. I track how much time I spend on things, and I’m up to 25 hours and still not finished. It is getting monotonous.
My learning rate is probably about average for a beginner course - now I’m starting to suspect it’s a technical issue or I’m doing something wrong.
I mostly login on laptop, but sometimes on mobile. I’ve tried changing the learning settings but even on ‘super advanced’ it’s very slow going.
Any advice or ideas?
Hi @CyberPsyLen, the 9 hours “avg duration” is a value automatically calculated by Memrise, based on the assumption that each item takes a total of one minute to learn.
The Russian 1 course contains 560 items, so their calculation would be:
560/60 = 9.33 hrs = 9 hours (rounded to the nearest hour)
I think that a much more useful indicator would be the average number of hours that learners actually spend working on a course in order to first reach the point where they’ve got all items in “long term memory”.
For what it’s worth, my best guess is that the true average would be around 40 hours for the Russian 1 course.
Only @MemriseSupport could answer this, but the time allocated may be to just complete the course - ie not doing any watering (reviewing or revising).
See confirmation two posts below 
Even that is likely to be 40 hours.
The only value of these estimates @CyberPsyLen are to indicate how big the course is comparatively.
Personally I assess courses by a variety of factors:
I do like stand alone courses (eg one for eating, another for travel etc), or at the very least clearly described levels.
But other factors like audio (for languages), whether it’s supported & updated and is the creator well known.
Sadly popularity can sometimes mean it was created a long time ago and is no longer supported.
Whereas a newer course, we may not even notice, may be far better.
Hi, sorry for the confusion.
This is on point. It’s also worth noting that the duration only takes into account new words, not reviews - so if you do a lot of reviewing sessions, it will take you longer to finish the course.
I can see you only have a couple of levels to complete on that course. Once you’re finished with that, you can start the next one in the series whenever you want 
If you believe something is wrong, let us know and provide more details so we can investigate further.
I hope this helps.
Best,
A.
Thanks for the details - it all makes sense. I don’t think I’m having any technical issues.
I’ve noticed all my spelling mistakes make the course longer and more frustrating because often I can recognise and say a word, but I can’t spell it. So memrise thinks I haven’t learned it.
Bit of a grey area I’m sure. Benefits both ways, but in the beginner course the focus on spelling feels harsh - especially as auto-correct is ubiquitous.
I wonder if there are any community Russian courses with audio but “No typing” or “[NT]”?
Have a look at this list >> Memrise - Russian - Courses for English (UK) speakers << then start the course for it to appear on the App.
Eg (No Typing) Beginner Russian ♪ - by ginghisklown - Memrise
@CyberPsyLen - I reckon I’m on about the same trajectory (albeit behind you): using phone and laptop. I’m 33 years old, I sing a Russian church choir and have a reasonably good brain. I’ve done nine hours and I must be a third or a quarter of the way in. Level 1 is definitely a 40 hour course. Some of the people ahead of me in the leaderboard are bots I reckon - that may be skewing the averages.
(I say ‘bots’ - what I mean is one account is being used to study about ten languages simultaneously all day long - so presumably there are multiple users)
Seriously, I dont think so. Either I am a brainless stupid idiot or it takes much, much longer. Yes, I think you can everything answer correctly after 40 hours, but it takes months to get in a long memory.
I am german native, old, but nevertheless… If I was twenty, I could do it faster, but I doubt it was 40 hours.