Having been active here over a year I am aware of the long discussion over the use of commas and now semi-colons as separators for words or phrases rather than having to set them up as alternatives (visible or hidden).
I am starting to create a new course and as an example have “Snake; Serpent”,
Now it will allow me to be correct with matching (obviously) AND with giving either word when spelling the answer, but as it is regards it as three words, when it wants me to select (pick) words from a selection, it does not let me answer with one word! When I have entered or checked the word it says I was wrong!
I have tried this twice (using the first and another time the second word). I have resorted to alternatives which work but this is not ideal or as I intended.
If I understand it correctly, what you have described seems to fit with how ‘tapping tests’ are explained in the Knowledge Base. Here’s the relevant bit:
"4. in Tapping Tests, Semicolons and Slashes ( ; / ) allow you to change the order of words when answering a test, but no more than 4 words (4 words or less and the order of the word does not matter). In Typing Tests, Semicolons and Slashes give you the possibility of answering with 1 word to gain a correct answer.
Example: “Hi/Hey/Hello”
Tapping Tests: “Hey/Hello/Hi” is considered a correct answer (although they are in a different order) along with any other variations of those 3 words. This means you need to include all of the words, but regardless of order.
Typing Tests: Alongside the answers that would be accepted in Tapping Tests, Typing Tests will also accept “Hey”, “Hello” or “Hi” as standalone answers. Essentially as long as you answer with 1 of the options, then it will be marked as correct.
Having studied this table (which I’ve seen before but only remembered the typing bit) I see this answers my query (and I’ve ticked the box). I wonder how many users know this!
So guess I’ll set up alternatives if I want single words to be accepted.
Should this be moved to General Knowledge or somewhere else?
I sometimes think that tapping tests have more negatives than positives but they do offer a bit of variety in testing.
Setting alternatives is one solution for you. Alternatively, you could disable tapping tests in the testing field but I think you would still get them during the learning phase.
Rather than move this topic elsewhere, you could just close it now. The guide to typing tests, tapping tests and Memrise punctuation that I quoted an extract from above appears in the search tool if you type the words “semi-colon”, “typing” or “comma” and takes you to the "How To’s area.
