My run was 6 and I’m at lesson 12 currently. I can’t say I find the system “easy”, but it’s very engaging and it’s challenging without being too difficult or frustrating. So 8/10.
The difficulty sometimes is to remember the English sentence exactly! Normally when I’m very concentrated on the lesson it’s not a problem, but right now I’m writing my degree thesis and I found that the background thoughts about it make me very easily distracted and my working memory is worse than it normally is. Apparently psychologists are right about Zeigarnik effect (which is, basically, about the fact that when you have an unfinished work in progress, your ability to do other things is diminished.)So I don’t worry about my inability to remember the sentence exactly and just try to pronounce the part I remember and then I make up the ending:)
Oh that’s interesting…hadn’t heard of that. I can certainly relate to “unfinished work in progress”! A good incentive to do something about those (other than postpone them…).
Was there meant to be another test after the dot sequence test?
It said click to go to next test, but then nothing. (Chrome on Windows 7).
As far as I got I only got 4.5.
Difficulty 9/10 up to 3 dots, 7/10 4 dots 4/10 5 dots.
Probably would have been all at sea with more than 5!
Possibly if I took it more slowly I might improve the 4 & 5 dots scores.
I think Aran meant difficulty of SSIW sessions?
My result was 5.5, if I actually did the whole test. It did seem to end abruptly.
The same thing happened to me. (Same brower, same OS). And it says at the top, “When you are finished, be sure to follow the icons to the right of the exercise.” But I didn’t see any icons.
I’m on Course 2 Lesson 5. I would score the sessions in Course 1, 8/10, and so far for Course 2, 7/10. I think the lessons are variable in their difficulty. There are lessons in the first course where a lot of time is spent on repetition of a single pattern, for example, “Wnaeth e…” with variations on the bit completes the pattern. Then there are lessons like Course 2 Lesson 5, which has a lot of material packed in it, and some constructions that involve more subtle understanding. Those score quite differently for me, and I found it hard to put all of them into one “bucket” to come up with one overall score.
7
Difficulty changes. Either 9/10 - all going fab, can remember lots etc or 4/10 - quite a struggle, give up on lessons for a while. I seem to switch between the two!
Don’t worry. 4.5 for me too. Didn’t measure on specific dots. I came to 5 dots and then the software says “Your test ended …”
Yes, he meant the worked test (the result @mikeellwood published at first) and then he meant the difficulty of SSiW (or SSi for that matter) courses.
I’m sorry, I’ve put down “heavy” score from my end but I am always honest so this is it for me.
Hmmm … I didn’t come to that. I came to 5 dots to appear and there was something on the right but those were not icons. i failed to “guess” the dots quite many times so the test stopped for me abruptly with popping up the message that my test is finished and (I believe) something about that I didn’t do quite good.
Chrome, Windows 8.1 for me though …
EDIT
Went through it once again. I can’t get higher then this
So this is obviously accurate and true for me …
Unless I’m missing something very obvious, I assume it doesn’t work on an iPad?
Correct, it uses Flash.
I got 5.5, I’m up to lesson 21 of Level 1. I’d rate the difficulty of SSiW at around 8/10. It’s not ‘easy’ per se, but it’s not so difficult that it’s disheartening.
Maybe try it also in the morning for the most accurate results, when your memory is not overloaded with the events of the day?
I got 6.5 on the test, which ended abruptly for me, too, using Firefox.
Currently on lesson 23 of course 2 (Northern).
4/10 - I seem to struggle a lot of the time but get there eventually with help and encouragement from some very nice people. When things get really sticky I tend to work in small chunks and use the spare time to extend my vocabulary.
It seems I’m very atypical for this course but I do like the way Welsh is more precise than English grammatically (as is French, too) so maybe that’s the cause.
What a fascinating set of replies, thank you all very much indeed!
So from this tiny sample, it certainly looks as though there’s a hint of weighting between working memory (as assessed by this particular test) and ease of use…
@raymondkefford - looks as though you might be something of an outlier - what sort of things in particular do you struggle with? Since you’ve got a good working memory, it might be more to do with expectations than processing issues…
@tatjana - you should really be taking very careful note of this - because the message is clear - you don’t have a strong working memory, so this approach is always going to be more challenging for you, and yet you’ve kept going, you’ve completed three entire courses, and you will have thoroughly earnt the surprise that’s waiting for you at the end of Level 1. You should be extremely proud of yourself.
@stella - you’re taking exactly the right approach!
The abrupt ending - no, I didn’t see any icons to follow on with, so I presume that bit is a work in progress
@Deborah-SSi - could we plug this in the email, please? It would be fascinating to see even wider results…
I got 6.5, and I was surprised I did that well as I’m rather tired this morning
@aran - yes, will do.
Yah, this really doesn’t go anywhere too much higher then as it was @stella. I didn’t work too much yet today despite I’m at work, it’s 11:30 am GMT+1 so this shouldn’t be too hard for me though. So no big difference if my mind is extreamly tired (what happens at the evening for sure) or not tired at all (what is something in the middle of the day like this.
Result is as this
What means for 0.5 better. So @aran is right about my working memory though.
Well, thank you @aran. Since I keep going on, maybe if there would be the test of stubbornity (or whatever this word should be composed ) I’d have at least 8 out of 10.
You’re teasing me with that surprise, @aran, yes … so I would surely finish this all and wouldn’t quit somewhere in the middle. And I will finish, I promise, with or without the surprise. This much I owe to myself ant ot all of you who put at least a bit effort to encourage me and beare with me in my weakest (many times angry) moments.
For now (since I’m going through first 10 Challenges of Level 1 for the 2nd time) the results are extreamly (almost unrealisticly) high (will say only that they’re above 80 %), but about this in “my” topic when I finish set of 7 lessons. Despite good results my weak working memory is already showing its results (problems with long sentences or structures with many words like "I’m going to try to say something …) The most I’m interested in how I’ll go through those “wrth” structures since they caused me so many problems before.
To conclude all this. I find this test really interesting no matter what results and I’ve bookmarked it so I could do it over and over again in some periode of time. Am interested will I progress or stagnate over time.
Diolch yn fawr iawn amdano fe.
I only just found this. I got 4.5 partly because I have poor peripheral vision and was having trouble seeing some of the ‘light ups’ if they were far apart. I gave up driving partly because, although my cataract ops did work, my right eye is still not right!! I find the lessons much easier as I learn better from hearing-and-saying!! (Or writing)!! But my difficulties with the lessons are all my own!! (p.s., now done 1.7 of challenges!).
Cataracta and glaucoma, 1 eye blind, 2nd with 50 % vision with glasses (without I don’t even know how much I actually see). 7 ops on left eye which is blind and 9 on right which sees what it sees … but still I blame my memory for the results, not my eyes although if dots are far apart I have to be careful observer also.
So we’re at the same difficulties … more importantly, we should never give up though!
Well done ti.
I remember that it was mentioned somewhere that the SSI method can eventually make your working memory stronger? This would be so great. Some people do have weaker memory than other people, and the dropout rate on the more conventional language courses is always quite high, and teacher training courses don’t really help dealing with this problem.
Thank you! I think it was all the wonderful advice that I read on this forum about relaxing that made me adopt a more relaxed approach towards the lessons and my “results”. I have also noticed that even when my results in the lesson are poor, my listening and even reading skills keep getting better. So I just decided that I will measure the effectiveness of my studies not by how well I do in the lesson, but by all the small changes for the better that I can see outside the lessons.
I decided that I will retake the test after I’ve completed course 1. I’m interested, too, if the results will change.
I scored a 6 on the test. I’m on challenge 21 of Level 1. I find the SSI mthuch easier than other language learning I’ve done. Occasionally I have a complete melt down and feel that I don’t remember anything (and there have also been awkward moments when I’ve been so tired I’ve fallen asleep mid challenge then woken up near the end wondering what’s going on!) However generally there is a feeling that most of what I need is there to hand and if I forget something I will get it from the answer and be able to reuse and consolidate it again within the next few sentences. I guess that this means holding it in working memory in the meantime?
For me saying lots of different sentences with the vocabulary I have has made me much more confident about being able to say what I want to say. At school the focus seemed very much on learning vocabulary and dialogues about ordering food, booking hotels’s visiting the Dr etc. In reality I needed my german to talk to a child in a playground or have a chat at the bus stop or at a concert. With SSIW I feel more confident to think of a sentence I want to say and try it in Welsh. Somethimes the experiment even works.
Also I’ve noticed when I mention I’m learning Welsh the response is often a quick indrawn breath and a comment about it being a really hard language. I’m a bit non plussed as using SSIW it has seemed easier than any other language I’ve tried. I don’t know if it is because this system works really well for me with my working memory, or whether those mythical beasts the mutations put off people who get faced with a card and try to learn which to use when. I think I might need such a card if I ever get the urge to try and program a computer to speak Welsh correctly. Till then I think I have a feel for how some sounds change in some places and if I’m wrong people will either work it out, laugh at me, or let me know so that,s OK. An attitude SSIW has helped me to develop.
so for mw
6 level 1 challenge 21 and 9/10
I’ve had that too. The last time I mentioned to someone that I was learning Welsh, the response was: “Ooh, you’re brave.” I told her I actually wasn’t finding it that difficult, and she said she learned a tiny bit in uni when she was studying Celtic myth, and it still scared the life out of her.
I agree that with the way SSi teaches, that’s kind of hard to believe!