Just adding my voice in case anyone at Memrise is listening. I’m a pro member and will have no use for Memrise anymore if all the longer answers are multiple choice. The typing is where the learning really happens. Please address this Memrise team!
8 Likes
I also wish to add my voice.
I have created a handful of courses dating back 4 years for advanced expressions where many longer answers are involved and typing them out is the KEY to really mastering them.
Why this change ? I can’t seem to fathom.
What criteria are they using to override the presentation of a typing mode instead of multiple choice ?
5 Likes
I don’t agree with those who say that this is an unintentional bug.
I think that they’ve disabled typing tests deliberately, because their offices are open, they are working, they are reading these reports on the forums, yet they say nothing.
Their silence in the face of many reports of alternate answers being marked wrong, strict-typing problems, and other new bugs in the last couple of weeks, fits the pattern of the comma/parenthesis changes a few months ago.
Back then, first they ignored us for a week or so, then they pretended it was a bug and asked us for details about courses and levels, screenshots, browser console copies, etc. for another week or so, Then, finally, after the uproar continued, they admitted it was a permanent change, done deliberately, because they had to prepare for new testing methods for their official courses.
I have the feeling that they are planning major changes again, and this is just a small taste of the big changes to come. What may those changes be? Your guess is as good, or bad, as mine.
1 Like
yeah, I can see my courses wherein I type full sentences are now, in essence, “no-typing” courses.
if what you’re saying is true, then this would be the end of memrise for me.
4 Likes
To avoid multiple choice tests I have been using CoolJingle’s Memrise All Typing userscript available from here: https://github.com/cooljingle/memrise-all-typing/raw/master/Memrise_All_Typing.user.js This was broken by the recent changes but it can be fixed by replacing the enableAllTypingReviews() function by the following.
function enableAllTypingReviews() {
MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.is_lowest_rung = function() {
return false;
};
MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.isTypingDisabled = function(e) {
return false;
};
}
I must add the disclaimer that this is my first foray into web programming, I don’t really understand what I’m doing and as a result, this could break Memrise in all kinds of ways. Hopefully, someone with a bit more knowledge of Javascript will come along soon and make my solution robust. However, until that happens, this fix should make Memrise usable again.
9 Likes
Have you tried it yet?
I installed, replaced the line with a simple copy and paste. Pretty simple. Tried it out and it works pretty splendidly. Good job.
It looks like they’ve now re-enabled typing tests for learning and review, at least for the moment.
And looking at their code, it seems that this is true for answers shorter than 16 characters. If the answer is 16 characters or longer, typing is still disabled.
2 Likes
@Ziutek - Thank you very much! I tested it on a course with a lot of sentences, and it worked beautifully.
…which would be okay for the app. But why the web? Wasn’t there a plan to treat the web and the app versions as separate entities and have it work fine?
I despise multiple choice, just as everyone else is saying here, recognizing a word is a lot less useful than typing it out. And I thought the whole reason behind Memrise was to learn, as efficiently as possible.
2 Likes
Excellent, thanks, was just about to try that userscript as I’d also noticed that I was getting lots of multiple choice and hardly any typing tests, especially for longer answers.
No way that’s a bug then, quite a deliberate change, that NOBODY has asked for and most of us clearly don’t want. Which has been an ongoing pattern with Memrise for a while now.
The frustrating thing is just there’s no other site that comes close to offering the same sort of user-creatable courses with spaced-repetition learning, at least that I’ve found.
Maybe it was. Now it has become something like everything else and probably just for making money. And since nowadays all their new customers are using the app version, because it is easy to handle and gives you a feeling of ‘learning’. While you are sitting in the bus and are getting learning points (which of course mean that you are making ‘progress’ in the language) for correct multiple choice answers, that you probably actually didn’t even read completely but know from the first 2 or 3 words already which was the correct answer.
The App version is just for making stupid points that are actually worth nothing. The App has nothing to do with actual learning because there is no effort. It is for spending time in the bus or on the toilet…
The only useful part may be if you are using the listening courses.
1 Like
xvg11 called it correctly. So much for Ben Whately’s promise last year to be more communicative about future changes!
Regarding poggi’s point, I think this is simply another case of changes driven by Memrise’s prioritising of their app having an adverse impact on the web version. I can only think that what’s driving this particular change is that they see typing answers longer than 15 characters on a mobile phone keypad as something which slows the process down to much. [Edit: I have since been told that the app doesn’t require long answers to be typed. So there must be a different reason for them testing this change.]
As a long time user of the web version, this is likely to be a deal-breaker for me, if they make it a permanent change.
8 Likes
From @lien’s profile page.
My colleague Matthew (aka MemriseMatty) has taken over all support-related tasks from me. Please make sure to tag @memrisematty for support-related queries.
Yes, no sign of staff here for almost 2 weeks. What are you up to @BenWhately, @MemriseMatty, @Joshua?
But this isn’t completely true. In the app version you never had to type in long sentences, but always just had to sort long sentences and it was always different than the web version. So the problem with ‘you had to type in long stuff on the mobile keypad’ never existed. On the app version there is no real change with this ‘update’, but the web version is simply destroyed by it.
Oh, right. Fair enough. I don’t use the app and couldn’t think of any other reason why they would want to disable typing tests for sentences in excess of 15 characters. I have added an edit to that part of my earlier post.
1 Like
If this is not made optional, it will severely compromise Memrise as a learning tool and show contempt on the part of the Memrise team for their site’s users. It really is most annoying to contribute courses and then see them buggered about at random on somebody’s whim. Apparently they are not concerned in the least by this.
3 Likes
Same problem here…
Even though I had the feeling it happens with only some of the courses I am following, namely the “active” ones. In the ones that I fully learned, most words need to be typed.
I really hope this can be changed… I feel like I am not learning words effectively if I cannot type them…
This fix works very well. For those who don’t know how to instal the user script, simply download tampermonkey for your specific browser and insert this code.
// ==UserScript==
// @name Memrise All Typing
// @namespace https://github.com/cooljingle
// @description All typing / no multiple choice when doing Memrise typing courses
// @match http://www.memrise.com/course/*/garden/*
// @match http://www.memrise.com/garden/review/*
// @version 0.1.2
// @updateURL https://github.com/cooljingle/memrise-all-typing/raw/master/Memrise_All_Typing.user.js
// @downloadURL https://github.com/cooljingle/memrise-all-typing/raw/master/Memrise_All_Typing.user.js
// @grant none
// ==/UserScript==
$(document).ready(function() {
//*****************************************************************************************************************************
//MEMRISE ALL TYPING
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//This userscript prevents multiple choice from occuring in typing courses, replacing it with a typing prompt.
//You can configure the extent to which this happens by setting these values to true/false:
// INCLUDE_REVIEWS: suppresses multiple choice when reviewing an item which hasn't been watered for a while.
// INCLUDE_MISTAKE_REVIEWS: suppresses multiple choice on items that reoccur after getting them wrong earlier in the session.
// INCLUDE_LEARNING: suppresses multiple choice on new items you are learning.
//*****************************************************************************************************************************
var INCLUDE_REVIEWS = true;
var INCLUDE_MISTAKE_REVIEWS = false;
var INCLUDE_LEARNING = false;
MEMRISE.garden.boxes.load = (function() {
var cached_function = MEMRISE.garden.boxes.load;
return function() {
if (INCLUDE_REVIEWS) {
enableAllTypingReviews();
}
if (INCLUDE_MISTAKE_REVIEWS) {
enableAllTypingMistakeReviews();
}
if (INCLUDE_LEARNING) {
enableAllTypingLearning();
}
return cached_function.apply(this, arguments);
};
}());
function enableAllTypingReviews() {
MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.is_lowest_rung = function() {
return false;
};
MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.isTypingDisabled = function(e) {
return false;
};
}
function enableAllTypingMistakeReviews() {
MEMRISE.garden.boxes.add_next = (function() {
var cached_function = MEMRISE.garden.boxes.add_next;
return function() {
makeMaybeTyping(arguments[0]);
return cached_function.apply(this, arguments);
};
}());
}
function enableAllTypingLearning() {
MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.make = (function() {
var cached_function = MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.make;
return function() {
var result = cached_function.apply(this, arguments);
if (arguments[0].learn_session_level) {
makeMaybeTyping(result);
}
return result;
};
}());
}
function makeMaybeTyping(box) {
if (box.template === "multiple_choice") {
var boxCopy = jQuery.extend({}, box);
box.template = MEMRISE.garden.session.box_factory.makeMaybeTyping(boxCopy).template;
}
}
});
6 Likes