Hey everyone, I've started my Spanish course and have a few questions regarding rating and scoring.
As I understand there are two seperate ratings: one of the software/app and a my own (Easy - Good - Hard). Is that correct? Is my own rating only for reviewing purposes?
And is the scoring for the leaderboard calculated using the rating of the software? (I would assume so). But when working my way through a module (I've completed 1.1 and 1.2) I can just click on ‘reveal', ‘flip’etc and I will get points anyway. So how does that work exactly. I'm a big fan of gamification but now it just feels pointless.
I tried to google the topics and find it on this board, but couldn't find it.
Having a hard time understanding ratings and scoring
KevinD53
October 30, 2020
marieg-rocket languages
October 31, 2020
Hi KevinD53,
Welcome to the course and the Forums!
Our apologies for any confusion caused. There is basically just one rating system, which is the one you mentioned - easy, good, hard - when doing the Reinforcement Area. The points system we have, is just a motivational tool to try to keep you engaged in accessing the lessons and doing the tests. As you accrue points, then you are getting badges and different positions in the Leaderboard, the more points you make, the higher the ranking will be.
The main purpose of the points and leaderboard tools is that you actually learn by using the course more, it's not just about being the top leader or getting more points without actually learning. I am attaching some screenshots from the Help page that provides the details on how points are accrued and the badges system:
https://nimb.ws/M8sQTj
https://nimb.ws/UOVS9F
I hope this helps!
Kind Regards!
Welcome to the course and the Forums!
Our apologies for any confusion caused. There is basically just one rating system, which is the one you mentioned - easy, good, hard - when doing the Reinforcement Area. The points system we have, is just a motivational tool to try to keep you engaged in accessing the lessons and doing the tests. As you accrue points, then you are getting badges and different positions in the Leaderboard, the more points you make, the higher the ranking will be.
The main purpose of the points and leaderboard tools is that you actually learn by using the course more, it's not just about being the top leader or getting more points without actually learning. I am attaching some screenshots from the Help page that provides the details on how points are accrued and the badges system:
https://nimb.ws/M8sQTj
https://nimb.ws/UOVS9F
I hope this helps!
Kind Regards!
KevinD53
November 1, 2020
It does, thank you! Although it is some getting used to. Coming from DuoLingo I am used to getting points when I get stuff right :)
RobertC106
November 9, 2020
Bonjour.
Kevin, you raise some interesting points, and these are just my thoughts. I gather from what you've said that we are very like-minded in our approach, just like most other serious Rocket learners.
I'm in agreement with the way that Rocket has always portrayed the purpose of the points. That is, as a rough measure of time spent using the course, and has very little to do with how much you're actually learning. I spend an average of 6 hrs/day studying French, and have a daily goal of 1000 pts. When I only have a couple hundred points, I am very motivated to get some learning done, and when I have 1300 points, I am very motivated to drink a beer. So, it works for me, although it's not a very accurate gauge of the time I actually spend studying French. Some lessons are straightforward so one can fly through the exercises. Others are very dense, requiring significant effort to grasp, often involving considerable time reading elsewhere on the internet, and so the time spent “earning points” is relatively small. In those cases, I could easily spend 8 hrs studying French in earnest and only end up with 700 pts for the day. It is not unheard for me to spend 3 long days on a single lesson. One of the best things about the points for me is that they keep me from spending inordinate amounts of time studying outside the lesson, rather than working my way through the exercises, which are very effective in their various approaches to the material.
As for equating points with successful completion, except for Write It, I can't imagine how that would even be possible. I think the voice recorder is a very valuable tool in spite of its flaws, but just the ease with which it will generate false positives (i.e., 100's for crap pronunciation and missing words) is enough to disqualify it as an accurate gauge of rightness/wrongness.
I also consider the points to be very lopsided in how they're earned, but again, this really can't be helped. Maybe I'm the only person that can spend 90 min going through 50 Flashcards, considering the time I spend trying to come up with ways to not forget that one again, but I still only get 50 pts. So what? On the other hand, I can get 3 pts just for imitating the tutor audio in Hear It Say It. Again, so what? If I'm unable to discern exactly what's being said and exactly what it means, it's going to get marked hard, and I'm going to have to do it again on the next iteration through the exercises. Although, in the case of long sentences, Know It is the most challenging, in general, Write It is, by far, the most demanding of the exercises, but you get one point. Again, who cares? Man, if the first thing that pops into your head when you see English is the correct spelling in French, you know you some French! I almost always need 3 iterations through the exercises in order to be able to do all 4 sets to my own critical satisfaction, and that takes hours!
Finally, I find the leaderboard to be a source of entertainment, and it's very easy to tell who's on my wavelength. I check it regularly, and enjoy thinking, Wow, she's on fire today!, or, Oh, no, she's not on the leaderboard, I hope she doesn't miss today and break her streak, or, I'll be impressed if he can keep that up. Hopefully everyone is learning as much as they're “earning”!
Now, back to work!
Robert