New Classic Review mode now in Beta

[frabcus_memrise (Francis (Memrise))]

Hi everyone!

As the next stage of rebuilding the learning sessions, Classic Review is moving from Alpha to Beta.

Instructions on what Beta means, and how to opt out of it if there are issues for you: https://memrise.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015889157-What-is-Memrise-Beta-and-how-do-I-turn-it-on-off-on-web-

Description of Classic Review when it went into Alpha mode: Launching: Classic Review alpha

Whilst the mode in its current version lays the groundwork for the future, what does it mean for your current experience?

• a sharper visual design, with larger videos and prompts

• an accessible interface that is designed to be more inclusive

• a number of errors that crashed user sessions have been fixed

• the timer has been removed from being a default feature

For Classic Review, we’re actively looking at:

• revising custom settings to fit with the new Classic Review mode

• reviewing the amount of typing tests in classic review. These are really important to some users in the community and we appreciate the feedback so far.

Please do ask questions, or post if you have any problems in this thread!

Best wishes,

Memrise Team

[possopo]

hi,
I don’t like the new Classic Review system at all. I changed the settings on my profile so I can keep working with the old system. will the old system still be available in the future or will it eventually get ditched in favor of the new system ?
in that case, I would unfortunately have to get rid of Memrise altogether which will be a big problem : /

thank you !

[mattyjay]

The new Beta Review has major problems. The UI is fine, it’s just that the settings are not coming across.
The courses that I’m using are often set up so that if the English word is given in text, we need to write it in Japanese, once we’ve submitted the audio of the Japanese plays.
However, the Beat review messes this up, it hides the English text and instead plays the audio. This is useless because if you hear the audio you can simply write it in Japanese, no translation necessary. If you move to this without fixing it I will have to stop using the courses.

[zorraroja]

Hi Memrise team,

I have just been switched to the new Classic Review and immediately opted out. I am not interested in multiple choice or audio skills tests. I want to take typing tests only as these are the most useful for my style of learning. I have been paying for Memrise since 2015 and use it every day. I really hope you are not planning to change Classic Review so that it is not possible to opt out of the multiple choice and audio tests, as I have learned over 40,000 words on this site and would hate to have to switch to a new one now. If you want to make multiple choice etc an option, please make it an option rather than forcing everyone to learn that way.

[wjostl]

I am really concerned about the new Classic Review system. I’ve been using Memrise for 9 years From what I can see the new review system disables typing tests and only allows me to review with multiple choice tests. Is this the case?

Typing tests for me are a fundamental part of what makes Memrise brilliant - they simulate as close as possible the challenge of producing the correct phrase from memory which is what successfully speaking a foreign language involves. You don’t go into a cafe and the server says “well I’m going to give you a list of four phrases to choose from, so try and choose the correct one and you’ll get the right drink…”

Retrieving information by selecting the correct answer from a list just can’t be compared to retrieving in the way that a typing test demands. Please can you confirm that there are no plans to take away the typing test Classic Review option?

[Adam_Memrise (Adam)]

@zorraroja and @wjostl thanks for your feedback. We’re actively looking at the amount of typing tests in Classic Review and aren’t making any plans to remove them from the product.

[Imperatoris_linguis]

Hi Memrise Team,

I am having 2 major concerns with the new Beta Version using the web version.

1. Flash Cards are too big to fit on a regular laptop screen.

As some people already pointed out, the new flash cards are bigger in size with a smaller font size (which is for languages like Japanese, Chinese etc. not ideal as characters are hard to differentiate). The biggest problem for me however is the fact that the new flash cards do not fit on my laptop screen (15.6") entirely and I have to scroll down every time I get 6 flash cards.

2. Numpad cannot be used to select flash cards.

Over the years I adapted this style that I primarily use the Numpad to select flash cards that don’t require writing, to increase my learning speed. It really helps me get hundreds of words through on a daily basis. The regular number keys over the keyboard can still be used, but I’d really appreciate if the Numpad could also be used again.

Even though these are no bugs of any sort, I would really appreciate these features to return, as it would increase the learning speed, which is why I am sticking with the Alpha for now.

[14bhughes]

I’ve been using memrise for years and typing tests are absolutely fundamental to me. They are the only reason I use memrise over other language learning apps. I simply do not learn when I am not doing these types of review sessions, so even if there will still be some typing tests in the new version, this is not enough for me and probably many others. Please consider having the new version as an option but still having full typing review sessions as an option

[redux2]

Hi @all
Please tell me:
How can I change my settings to return to the old system?

[zorraroja]

Thanks, Adam. I’d like to reiterate that I am not interested in typing tests as part of a mix of test types unless that mix is 100% typing tests. Please maintain this as an option for users who want it.

[possopo]

1/ aside from my question about total replacement of the old version of the Classic Review system, I have to second other posters about design and font sizes. everything looks pretty messy on my laptop (basically, everything is too big).

2/ another issue is that for my Russian reviews, I was using a latin keyboard, writing down words with Google input that automatically changes the words in Russian cyrillic and pasting them. it seems odd but it works great for me. the new interface doesn’t let me do that. I still have the option to click on every letter but it takes an insane amount of time, making this option impossible to use.

thanks again.

[Jomochiro]

I’m having issues with the new mode as well ; to be honest I don’t like it at all. I’m not interested in audio reviews and for some reason Memrise asks me to choose between 4 propositions instead of typing the word (happens for Japanese lessons).

I toggled off the “Audio reviews” thing on my profile as well as the Beta mode but it does not seem to work as I still get audio here and there (same for the Beta mode). Please consider adding more customization.

EDIT: I had the Memrise labs toggled on, that is why the Beta mode was still on. It’s good to see we can stick with the older version for now, thank you!

I’m planning to take N2 this year, and Memrise had a huge role in me passing N3. Huge thanks for your tool, hopefully you’ll be able to make some adjustments in the coming weeks!

[alanh]

It’s good to note from the OP that you are actively looking at revising the custom settings and reviewing the amount of typing tests in classic review. We all have different learning preferences and it will be impossible to find a single system that will suit everyone. So I think it will be important to maximise the custom settings available to us.

For me, listening tests, multiple choice and tapping tests are helpful during the initial learning cycle and when wrestling with ‘difficult words’ but, apart from this, once the word or phrase is in my long term memory my firm preference is to be shown typing tests. For that reason, I have been using the ‘all typing’ userscript, which is easy to toggle on and off depending on the course being reviewed. Now that the userscript doesn’t work with the new-format classic review, I have to switch between formats when doing my daily reviews. As others have commented, I hope that we will still be able to access the old format until all the issues are resolved.

A couple of other specific comments on the new format:

• As mentioned by others, the size of the boxes (particularly in the six-option multiple choice questions is too big for the average laptop screen, meaning that constant scrolling is necessary. Reducing my screen zoom setting removes the need for scrolling but then reduces the size of the characters, which can make them difficult to read.

• When a typing test does get presented:

  • the inclusion of the in-browser keyboard lacks a space bar button.

  • If the word has both male and female variants, the answer is ‘auto-accepted’ after only one of these is typed correctly.

  • Inclusion of the in-browser keyboard is helpful where ‘special’ characters are required. Otherwise, it makes answering too easy because it offers too many clues to the word or phrase required. Like many others, I currently use an ad blocker to hide the in-browser keyboard for this reason.

• I found the ‘current streak’ stat which used to appear for each word reviewed in the post-review summary page helpful. Can we have this reinstated please?

• When can we expect to hear some news about the future of mems, please? Are you planing to drop them completely?

[morger]

Hi I am opted out of Memrise labs (in Settings:Learning) and have Audio Tests switched off, but it is still giving me the new style and audio tests. Like many users on here I am only interested in typed answers and no multiple choice/audio. How can I continue with my normal settings? Memrise was the best tool I found for vocabulary learning and it would be a shame not to be able to continue using it.

[morger]

Just to add my voice to @zorraroja comment. It is not the amount of typing tests that is an issue - For me typing tests are the only response type that actually tests if you know the word, so without an option for 100% typing tests, the review system is basically useless for me.

[morger]

Thanks to @alanh in another thread, I found there is a new opt out button that needs to be unchecked in the Profile tab. For now Memrise is usable again for me!

[Serin]

Thank you, memrise team, for giving us the option of opting out of this new classic review. Please, please, don’t force it on us! I want to be able to spell words correctly in the target language - memrise will stop being useful to me if I don’t have to review by typing.

[morger]

Go to Settings: Profile and uncheck the box ‘The New Memrise Experience (beta)’.

[srahl]

To reiterate some of the main points already being made:

1. Please do not eliminate or reduce typing test questions. Multiple choice tests for something that’s already been learned are a waste of everyone’s time and significantly dumb down the product. I can see how audio questions could be useful for some people, but they are not for me. Please allow an option to continue to use typing tests exactly as before.

2. Visually, the new version looks terrible on my laptop. Everything is way too big, except of course the Chinese characters I’m actually trying to learn, which are way too small. This was not a problem in the old version.

More general feedback: I’ve continued paying for this service over the years through a lot of pointless changes that degraded the quality of the product. But I’ve stuck with it, because as we all know the switching costs out of this thing are high.

It’s weird, because I’m also a heavy Duolingo user, and they just never do this stuff to their users. When I use Duolingo, I have confidence in the product and the team behind it. Whereas when I’m using Memrise, as much as I’ve loved the product over the years, I use it with this constant low-grade anxiety that tomorrow I’m going to wake up and the product will be significantly worse, because it has happened so many times.

This sense of anxiety is not good for your business. I continue to use Memrise because I’ve sunk so many hours into it. But I wish I had never started. I don’t recommend it to other people; I actually warn them off of it.

You guys appear to be a team without a coherent strategy. At times, it has seemed like Memrise’s greatest ambition is to become a worse version of Duolingo. At other times, there’s just endless, confusing fiddling with the design (flowers to robots to rocketships to whatever). There seems to be a strong overriding preference for making everything progressively larger, requiring lots of pointless scrolling from the user, while obscuring more and more of the actually relevant information, i.e. “how many mems do I have ready for review across all my courses” (I still find it utterly baffling that the home page doesn’t do this - you have to go the Groups page to actually get this information in a clear, concise way. Stranger still, the home page used to show this information, but at some point there was a deliberate design change to make it harder to find).

The goal for this product should be to make it faster, visually cleaner, and more effective for learning from the perspective of the user. Dumbing down typing tests into multiple choice doesn’t serve that end, and neither does making everything visually huge so that users have to waste time scrolling to see all the relevant informaiton. So often with Memrise it seems like the people making the design changes don’t actually use the product themselves.

[Schnelllerner]

How to turn this off? It is really annoying!!