I just did a regular review of a course I haven’t used regularly and my score was 30% accuracy. I could hardly remember any of the words!
When I did speed review, I got 98% accuracy because choosing the right answer out of four options was way easier than actually recalling the word from my own memory.
I just wonder what the point of speed review is from a language-learning point of view. It doesn’t seem to be very useful, if you ask me, and I only use it when I am out and about and want to quickly get some points in order not to lose a streak. I just see it as a bit of harmless fun, but virtually worthless in terms of helping me learn words.
for me it simulates the challenge of quickly, off-the-cuff recall of a specific word or concept I require when trying to speak a language; which is quite different than having to do so with more time/less pressure.
Having said that, I don’t use it as much as I maybe should, given the above…
I rarely use the speed review (BTW - it’s called Turbo in the German version of Memrise ).
I can’t say that I dislike it though - to me it’s a way to:
get a few further points to meet the streak requirements (i. e. in Russian I learn slowly, so if there’s no words left to review, I’ll sometimes do a SR to get enough points for the streak)
quickly go over a list of words in courses where there aren’t any words on the review list but where I’d still like to do a quick (!) review
Generally spoken I think it’s a really good means to just give it a little push and commemorate words that I haven’t seen in a while. Particularly, there is no way of putting words that you know aren’t really in your long term memory or ones that should be learned more frequently (for whatever matter) on a special list, i. e. one that you can just review. The difficult words list just doesn’t qualify for that.
The SR is also a way to quickly repeat a whole course (provided it’s much less than a thousand words).
I must say that I don’t use it much either, but with some courses I have problems remembering the vocabulary, even though I learned it officially and hence I should know it.But the Speed Review doesn’t seem to set further the words you have reviewed, like the classic Review does, so you may repeat the words everyday and hence remember it more easily.
I guess it’s something like Difficult words, but for free
On top of what has already been said about it being a quick way to review a lot of words… you can make it more challenging by attempting to recall the translation before you look at the multiple choices.
The way I saw it was that I’d do a speed review because it’s faster and when you have 200+ reviews due daily a classic review could take quite a lot of time (ironically enough, Speed reviews will only add to those 200+ because of missing a word you knew out of haste). I agree that Speed reviews are bad if you actually want to learn the language, you’re not given enough time to process the words. I would sometimes even find myself choosing the right answer randomly.
I now am doing only classic reviews when I’m using Memrise and can see real improvements in my retention rate.
When you do speed review, you have multiple choice options, so there is virtually no recall necessary. It is a totally different thing from classic review when you sometimes have to recall a word from memory.
I don’t like speed review as a language-learning tool because I feel it only helps in terms of exposing you to the word again - with audio if you are lucky - but it doesn’t test my active vocabulary at all.
I used to find the red lines creeping up the screen stressful, but I mostly review courses that I know very well now, so the timer doesn’t bother me, plus it is less intrusive with the new design.
I find it useful:
-When I am in a rush and cannot dedicate my usual amount of time to review
-When I know a section of words pretty well and don’t feel the need to review them in much depth
I wouldn’t recommend using it to replace “classic review” entirely, but it can absolutely be helpful when used wisely.
I found speed review very useful for some courses when it kept getting faster and faster because there are many words that I originally learned with the help of a mem or some memory trick or association and the regular reviews never really pushed me to let go of the memory trick and let go of thinking it through carefully and just go straight to the correct choice.
Now that speed review has been changed so that it doesn’t actually speed up, it doesn’t seem as useful.
You do need to recall, because you have no time to read all the options well and think. Just like in real life, in a conversation, you don’t have time to think of what the speaker is saying and what you need to say, you have to recall it automatically. It’s a very different knowledge phase from when you’re still learning a word at first, it’s from when you know it already but you need your memory refreshed.
While instead on the other hand I find the website timer absolutely stressful and useful, because in real life there’s never a situation when I need to write down a word/sentence correctly under a timer. Maybe for an exam, but that’s a different situation.
Luckily the speed review mode only happens if you select it, so I’d say if you don’t like it just don’t use it. Unlike the website timer which is sadly not toggable. It’s understandable if you don’t find it useful, as you see there are people who do, instead.
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