I tried hard to search for this answer and am surprised not to have found it. Basically, I’m trying to use memrise to review stuff without having to waste hours and hours clicking stuff to get it marked as learnt and into the review.
I am trying to find a way to mark words as learned which I already know without having to “learn” them 6 times each.
I know that I can “ignore” them, but then this removes them completely from all the reviews and the speed game.
You can use the ‘Auto-learn’ feature to automatically add items to your reviewing rotation, but it’s unfortunately only available on courses that you either created or are set as a contributor for. There used to be a workaround that let you use it on other courses by changing the url, but that was removed a while back.
To use the feature on an applicable course, go into a level, click “Options” near the top, then “Auto learning”, and it should set all items in that level to ‘learned’.
Thanks, sadly I feared that would be the answer. My courses don´t have the option.
I cannot fathom why all courses don´t have the option to mark known words as read.
Surely Memrise is a self-motivated application and any abuse of the function would simply lead to diminished learning speed, i.e. cheating themselves and not others.
If anyone at Memrise is out there, please consider this another vote to have it as an option.
Well, I’m a coder who has written hundreds of algorithms.
It should detect that if you get the word correct extremely fast e.g. < 1.5 second and type it perfectly, say, twice then you clearly already know it and should not have to drill the thing 6 times irrespective of your current knowledge.
I am sure they have their reasons for keeping it this way but for me Memrise is timewasting and frustrating and I end up having to “ignore” hundreds of words to be able to use it efficiently.
A correct SRS algo should rapidly detect when you already have proficiency in a word or sentence so you do not waste time. Which is why I use Duolingo almost exclusively. Sadly it lacks enough vocabulary.
Is there any workaround whatsoever? I have been reading the forums and so many others have this complaint.
I guess I could write a chrome plugin to hammer the “easy” words with javascript automatically after hitting a key. I wonder if there is such a thing already? That would be a bitch to wriite…
Googled for about 5 mins then gave up so I thought I would ask here first.
sorry, but this is a typical commentary of a short-term user learning something that she/he knows somehow already.
Maybe if you’d try higher level Spanish courses, you’d notice that you need drilling items… and try using memrise over a longer time span… let’s see what you gona say then
I am sure I want memrise to keep the SRS algorithm the way it is now - I am learning Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia among others, and seeing new items twice is definitely not enough. I’d like an override-typos, some change in the behaviour of items learned long-ago (those really learned items), a much leaner UI, etc
Of course, I imagine they judge the success of their algo with site wide A/B’s to suit the majority, and are content with their setup.
I am starting to just use the ignore button now due to total frustration.
Here is an example of while I feel this is needed: I want to have every spanish verb in the speed game to play while I’m in a waiting room, for example, for the purpose of revision - not learning. But I simply can’t do that because of the frustration of having to click the ones I already know well (although not permanently) 6 times before I can move on. It would take me tens of hours and I would learn hardly anything.
I still feel there is a huge need to mark a word as “learned”, or for them to improve their algo to detect initial proficiency rather than only post-learning efficiency. It really wouldn’t be that hard. I am sure they have split tested multiple algos, but what suits the majority doesn’t necessarily suit all…
I do, however, very much concede your point that I may naturally find my own workarounds for the problem, given that you have 100x the XP of me. But, if I were able to use Memrise more instead of Duolingo (where I have c. 150 hours) I would be much closer!
PS finally, I feel the memrise spanish courses are pretty poor and are missing so many synonyms it is painful to use. So I use the specialised courses only, e.g. numbers, time and date, verbs, nouns. I hope you can understand my point.
My current conclusion is that Memrise is not fit for purpose in its current state compared to Duolingo due to this exact reason. I would consider this to be a reason that Duo is valued at 500M$ and Memrise at a fraction of this. But, as you say, let’s see if my opinion changes after I rack up another 10mil XP or so…
sorry, I don’t understand here … speed review asks you to click the same items 6 items before? I don’t use the app, only the web version
No, I don’t understand your point, by this I mean no criticism or objection: I am a long-term user of memrise, I do have a hard time finding courses to my liking, but usually Ido find them…
my Spanish got much better since i’m using memrise - before memrise, I was an excelent passive speaker for 15 years. I never used the “official” courses for learning anything / something,; I am trying the Japanese ones, and I had a look at the Chinese ones, but… let’s say they are not my piece of cake…
Whoops, I “catch” myself almost lying, I did use 3 years ago the “Whately” courses for HSK (Ben Whately being one of the owners of memrise), but those course were not registered as official
Btw, there are plenty of Spanish courses on memrise with synonyms and alternative and audio etc
It seems we are both using Memrise for different purposes.
My issue is that I want to open up courses in their entirety for the purpose of revision not practice.
But to do so, I have to click through the whole course no matter how easy it is. And each word has to be hit 6 times, even if I click it in 0.5 seconds and type it in 0.5 seconds too – it should be able to predict that I’m pretty damn good at that word instead of making me labour.
I would rather mark the word as learned than ignored. I found many other threads requesting the same.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the official Memrise courses, either… Fortunately, there are hundreds of community-created courses available on Memrise, and many of them are excellent. BenWhatley’s First 5000 Words of Spanish and Ian_mn’s 5000 Words Top Up series are particularly good at clarifying which synonym they’re asking for…
I mention some beginner and intermediate courses in this thread:
More advanced courses are listed in this thread:
I realize this doesn’t address your main complaint. Perhaps some of these courses will have more new words than known words, and they’ll succeed at reducing your frustration.
Thanks, the 5000 first words of spanish seems good. Except I would prefer to mark words as “learned” rather than “ignore” hundreds of them, because I really can’t be bothered hitting them 6 times each when they are in my LTM but not permanent.
I am also starting my own courses using my own spreadsheet instead of anki, I actually quite like Memrise for this purpose because the interface is nice but I can’t mark the words as “easy” like Anki, which is precisely the function I’m looking for, yet it’s missing in Memrise
So perhaps it will be a useful adjunct to Duo for vocabulary extension, but it’s still frustrating (and quite odd) for it not to algorithmically detect when new words are already in my LTM, or at least give me the option to tell it that it’s easy for me already.
Kit_lbz, Memrise describes itself as a site for learning. That is the whole purpose of the site and app.
Yeah, maybe it would be convenient if Memrise provided other services. But it seems like that would be their decision. Currently, it appears that Memrise is maintaining their focus on being a learning site & app. And it works very, very well for that purpose, learning.
If what you really want is to review and maintain words that you already know, I’d suggest daily reading, such as novels or the newspaper. Or many other possibilities.
Thanks, I see it in my own course now and that’s extremely helpful. Totally usable and no more wasted hours drilling nonsense that is already in my STM/LTM.
argh, thanks for the reply… pero pienso no me entiende… I could sit here and copy and paste many other threads now with people who have the precise same issue as me, but it appears we all want to use it for different purposes.
Fact is, Memrise has many good courses which could be excellent for revision for the purpose of fluency, but most of which are primarily suitable only for those who wish to learn new words.
In summary my takeaway from this thread is that, sadly, it is better to create my own course and then mark stuff already in my active vocabulary as learned, effectively creating an Anki clone for the purpose of the interface.
Part of intellect is finding the most efficient tools to achieve the maximum in the minimum time, and currently I’m not doing that because I’m wasting my time arguing over the suitability of a specific tool which will likely never be fit for my own purpose. Therefore I am not only wasting my own time, but also that of others - with this thread
My own opinion (and, of course, I understand that I am only one of many) is that the SRS algo of Memrise is factually broken because it cannot algorithmically detect what is already in my memory. (Spot my sarcastic and ironic usage of “opinon” & “factually” en la misma sentancia)
I suggest it’s best to call a close to this thread, and apologise for my frustration, because I currently feel I’m unlikely to concede on this point.
Having read many of the posts (but not all) I refer to this:
I am also starting my own courses using my own spreadsheet instead of anki, I actually quite like Memrise for this purpose because the interface is nice but I can’t mark the words as “easy” like Anki, which is precisely the function I’m looking for, yet it’s missing in Memrise
Not sure if I am saying things you already know or if someone has mentioned this above, but:
I was going to say that if you create your own course (or become a contributor to one you like) you can “auto_learn” a level - effectively an “ignore” until you want a quick revision.
(Personally I regret the loss of the work-around to “auto_grow” courses we were learning but not a contributor of.)
Also you can create a level that is called "easy . . . " and put easy words in that level.
