Question:
I created a vocabulary mastery schedule to practice writing. It is set to only have one study vector (kana -> kanji) so that I can see the kana and write the kanji on paper before showing the alternatives. This works very well for sentences but a lot of the questions are one word only even though there are sentences available for that word.
I'd like to remove these questions and only have questions with sentences when available for that word. Does anyone know if this is possible?
I've tried setting the "Vocab. level before joining renshuu?" to advanced and adding a lot of textbooks under the customize option.
Long, probably unnecessary excuse: If I treat the one word questions differently from the ones with sentences and show the alternatives, it's too easy and this raises the mastery level for that word even though I didn't write the kanji. Next time that word might show up in a sentence and have a too high mastery level because of this (and then fall back to 1). If I try to write them I get frustrated since they are too hard, and sometimes very very hard. きょうかい for example I might write 教会 and show the alternatives to find out that i should have written 境界 or 協会。 For せいじ I might write 政治 instead of 政事 or 盛時、盛事、斉次、正字. きかい、機械、機会、奇怪 and so on. In these cases I don't know if I should skip (reset mastery even though I might had been able to write it if I had thought of the right alternative) or select the right answer. I (of course) get no feedback on what I actually wrote either without using a dictionary. It would be a lot less frustrating without those questions in the cases where there are example sentences. It can't be helped if there are no sentences of course, and also the symbol showing this gives me a hint so I'm fine with that. I see a use for these questions, I just don't want them in this schedule since I'm practicing writing. :-)
I might be overthinking this. The extra failures might not matter in the long run, but just in case I can flip a switch somewhere and only get sentences, I'd like that. :-)
Sorry for the delay in responding to you! The site does run through a few checks to make sure it offers sentences to you that it thinks are reasonably close to your knowledge level. This might be the cause of them not appearing within the quiz. Please do this for me - next time a few terms come up without sentences that you think should have sentence questions (2 or 3, maybe), press the Problem? button and report it through there. If I have a few examples, I can give you a more definitive answer as to why they are not appearing, and possibly see if there is a bug in there or the potential for a new user setting to get closer to what you want!
Thank you for your reply. I tried to confirm this but I'm mostly sure this is the case (edit: confirmed): The sentences for these words also show up, it's just that sometimes I get a question for that word without a sentence even if there are sentences (last time I was quizzed on the word I might have gotten a sentence for example).
I pressed the "problem?" button and sent a few messages. I had no idea about how much information to include in the form but this site is so well made that I assumed the relevant information was captured and included. If my reports make no sense I'll try again. :-)
Perfect! The hidden setting you set up for me in the beta solved this problem perfectly! Thank you!
Somewhat related:
I added a sentence to one of the words that had no examples. This sentence shows up in the quiz (when viewing the answer) so it seems to be linked correctly (maybe?) but it did not get used as a question. I don't mind this as such, but I just wanted to point that out.
Also, if there is a way for me to add example sentences to words and get these approved so that they show up for everyone, I would. :-)
Thanks for the reply. Actually, I made two changes. I'd like to roll back one and see if it still works for you (the one I'd like to roll back was more "hacky" than the second one, which should cover it.) I think I know why the new sentence is not appearing, but let me put that to the side until we get the rest of this resolved. Currently, user-added sentences remain private. I am working on a system to let users share their sentences, but it will not be available quite yet. Please let me know if you can now still confirm that it is working for you.
I can't say I've noticed my private sentences getting used in the vocabulary quiz a single time. Are they supposed to? I'd really like it if they were. In case it matters: I've only added sentences to words that had none.
I'm sorry to hear that! Mind giving me a few examples? Or, if you'd like, you can go to the Study Center and make a short, private lesson of terms with this issue. It'll let me jump in and test it directly within your account.
A possible cause: are you binding your sentences to the dictionary once you add them? If not, this is required. It is not the most convenient at the moment, but after you add a sentence and it appears in the sentence list for that term, there should be an up arrow next to the edit and delete icons. This parses the sentence up and creates mappings between each word and the appropriate entry in the dictionary. It also keeps track of things such as conjugations.
Without this, there is no way for the site to know exactly what is in the sentence, and therefore cannot use it in a quiz.
Sorry for the late reply. I really tried to make sure I didn't miss something too obvious and that I had a good understanding of the problem before answering. This amazing site has really saved me so much time and energy in my Japanese studies so I feel a bit bad not being able to explain this better.
I'm only adding sentences to terms that have none and I don't add any translation. My private sentences do not get used when the term shows up in my master schedule but they are used if I add them to a private lesson (it's called "Testing") and start a quiz. After adding a sentence during a quiz, another popup gives me the option of connecting the sentence to the dictionary. I tried to do this once again for all of my sentences when they showed up the second time (with the up arrow this time) but this changed nothing. During the quizzing I get a question for the term with only that one word. But then after I've answered the question my private sentence is shown. This means that it's connected correctly I assume?
It's empty at the top where the sentence I got quizzed on usually shows up since no sentence was used, but a sentence shows up at the bottom with the current word highlighted.
So sorry for the delay in getting back to you! Was getting through my last week of work before the winter holiday.
There's no need to apologize - you've given me more than enough to work with.
I believe I have found the issue! You making the private lesson was the big hint, since it was working there, but not in the schedule. I made a test schedule in your account with just the terms from the test lesson, and it now appears to work.
What is somewhat embarrassing is that this bug has probably been there for years. It only occurred if:
In a schedule
Doing reading questions
Have a term with private sentences, **but no** other sentences
The last one was the big thing - if renshuu had already provided a sentence(s) for it, then it would happily pull in the private sentences as well.
Please let me know if you can confirm that it's working for you!!
What a nice surprise to review my schedule today and find my private sentences put to use. I'm very happy to have had this solved for me (and apparently only me xD) so quickly! Thanks a lot! I'd say it seems to work perfectly now. :-D
