I’m trying to write a course to help my children with their weekly spelling tests/maths tests etc. So far its working well. But I think it would work better if the choices that were presented to them were a little more alike.
For example, when trying to learn the word ‘hopping’, Memrise seems to do the following:
Show them the word
Plays the audio for the word, and they then have to select the word they hear from 4 options.
Shows the word, and then they have to select the right audio from 3 options
Asks them to spell the word
For (2), is there any way I can make the options they pick from a little more alike the actual word under test? When they are presented with 1. hopping 2. monkey 3. terrible and 4. subtraction, they don’t really have to look at the spelling to choose the answer. If the choices were 1. hoping 2. hopping 3. hopeing 4. happing I think it would be more productive.
I’ve started to add some incorrectly named words to the dictionary, but they don’t seem to get picked.
For (2), is there any way I can make the options they pick from a little more alike the actual word under test?
Hope someone gives you a fuller answer but to limit the choice to similar words, the only thought that comes to me is to put each group of similar words in a separate column - but you will need at least 8 or 10 similar ones.
That sounds laborious
I’ve started to add some incorrectly named words to the dictionary, but they don’t seem to get picked.
This is what I am suggesting BUT it’s too late now as the alternatives have already been set! (See the many discussions about ‘Phantom’ entries.)
So either start again or create new columns.
Hope someone in the Community can offer a better solution.
Thanks for the suggestion. Although, I’m not quite following how putting them in a different column would work. Let me see if I’m understanding you correctly…
So I set the word e.g. “hopping” and then you are suggesting I add columns to the dictionary for altSpelling1, altSpelling2, altSpelling3 etc?
But then how would Memrise know to use these words as suggestions? Does it not use others words from the column it is testing you on, e.g the word column?
Yes ‘MemRise’ does choose alternatives from the same column (as they are often similar words).
[ ie one column could be all numbers and another column the French for it.
Then another pair could be the English for simple phrases and the French.]
So all your 8 or more alternatives to ‘hopping’ would need to be as 8 similar alternatives in the same column.
However I have just realised that this may not work as you’d have to find genuine alternatives together with their answers.
Perhaps for hopping, you could group several words in one column - eg starting with ho or ending in ing - even if she has to ignore these words for now.
Then ‘terrible’ would have to be in another pair of columns with similar words starting in ter or ending in ble.
However I think this is all too complicated.
Testing your child may be simpler
Have you considered turning off ‘tapping’ (matching) tests?
I have been wondering that, too! Memrise doesn’t have such function. I think that is why some users really like to do only all-typing tests (they have a script for that). My experience is that if the content is used in other contexts as well, the Memrise method does train the right spelling well, too. Just not in the order you just described.
Thanks for that. I will try a level on typing only then and disable to other options.
Either way, Memrise is definitely helping Its teaching them their weekly spelling, albeit IMO not in the most efficient way, and by the end of the week they seem to get all of them right.
You could probably achieve this without Memrise, but where Memrise really comes into its own is where it ‘reviews’ all the old words from previous tests (levels) periodically and identifies words that you struggle with. Without Memrise, I don’t think they would be quite so succesful on the words they learn at the beginning of the term. Short term vs long term
And just to close this out, if any other parents are considering using it for spelling tests, another bonus of using an app like Memrise to teach specific words for school is that you can tell your kids they can’t use their device until they’ve had their daily dose of Memrise.
An Idea
Somehow integrate it into the lock screen of a tablet, so in order to unlock the tablet they have to do their Memrise!
Its teaching them their weekly spelling, albeit IMO not in the most efficient way, and by the end of the week they seem to get all of them right.