As the next stage of rebuilding the learning sessions, we are about to move Listening Skills from Alpha to Beta. This means everyone will get the new mode, unless they opt out.
Reposting from what I put in the alpha thread earlier. Basically Iām having two issues. The first is that unchecking the āThe new Memrise experience (Beta)ā box still brings me to the beta version of listening skills (although it says alpha).
The second, and the reason I was trying to disable the new version for the time-being, is that it really slows me down since I get to those that do not allow me to type answers and force me to click on words. I can use the number row on they keyboard to select words, but this is cumbersome, especially with long sentences, the number pad doesnāt work, and even if do select everything using the keyboard, I still have to move my hand over to the mouse because the enter key will not enter the answer until I click somewhere else on the page (it will only replay the audio).
This is the only issue Iāve seen with the alpha/beta version of the new listening tests. I actually like these types of tests on the mobile version, just not the web version. If I could disable this specific part of the listening skills so that it is only multiple choice and typing (more similar to the old version) it would work out much better for me.
There are separate settings for the Beta and Alpha (it is a bit confusing, not your fault!). If you go to the Learning tab in your settings, turn off Memrise Labs and you will know longer get the Alpha modes. Hopefully you can get the old mode back now!
The new test types mix is a bit different, now aligned with the mix on mobile. This means there is less typing, replaced with tapping for long phrases, and with more multiple choice.
Weāre reviewing what to do about this, as different users have different needs.
Iāve opted out of labs for now, which has put the listening tests back to normal.
I totally understand different users will have different needs, and different methods will work better for different languages also. I hope in the final version there are some configuration options to allow the user to tailor it to their preferences and needs.
I do like tapping when using the app since my typing on a smartphone is slow, especially using Hangul, but on the computer, for me at least, it is the opposite. I also like to get a bit of practice actually typing in Korean.
Hi Francis,
Iād like to stress one thing Sean has already said: the number pad does not work in beta. Iāll be glad if something could be done with it.
Thanks,
I really like the new Beta, but I hope we will be able to play around with the configurations since, for example, the questions where you have to spell a word you hear donāt make sense for me personally. And this is just because of the fact that I use memrise to learn what the words mean, not to only learn how to spell!
I like the listening skills mode in general but I think the questions where you type what you hear need more context. In particular:
Itās not clear whether you are supposed to type the answer in the target language or the translation in English (or whatever your base language is). For Mandarin I can guess based on whether the letters provided include numbers (to indicate a tone) but you shouldnāt have to guess - there should be instructions in the question.
For languages with a lot of homophones (like Mandarin, Japanese) itās often unclear what word you are listening to if you just hear it in isolation. You can sometimes guess the answer from the letters provided but again you shouldnāt have to guess. Currently (in Mandarin) for example Iām being tested on both āTenā (shi2) and āTimeā (shi2).
