Memrise Wrap-up
The previous Memrise lessons have shown you the basics of Memrise to get you started. However, there are other major features of Memrise that you should spend some time exploring as well. This lesson explains each of these other features briefly so you know where to continue exploring on your own.
1. Points Accumulation and Rankings
Each time you answer correctly a Memrise question you receive points. These points vary based on the question type and how quickly you answer. Points accumulate over the lifetime of your account and are never lost. There are weekly, monthly and all-time rankings for each course you work on, based on the points you have earned during the relevant period. There are also ways to earn points, such as adding a picture or Mem to a word. As you play around with Memrise you’ll find the different options to accumulate points. There is even a secret all-time overall global ranking that you can look at here.
You can also explore the rank levels that you achieve based on your overall accumulated points. Here is a chart that gives you the required point totals to achieve each title: Memrise Title Names.
I use the rankings to push myself and keep going. Be careful though, you’ll find Memrise to be addictive and there are people that spend 3, 5 even 8 hours a day for extended periods using Memrise. Remember, it is only one of the tools you should be using to learn Spanish, so don’t neglect the other tools. Diversify your time across all the tools discussed in Start Spanish Today.
2. Create your own course
Just as you walked through your first course, one of the great features of Memrise allows you to create your own course. Use this to add words you run across in your learning process. Be sure to add the visual cues to each word or phrase whenever you can. You can make this course private only for your personal use or can share it publicly with other learners. As an added bonus, you receive points when you create your own mem.
3. Help feature of Memrise
Start here to find answers to your questions: Memrise Knowledge Base
The Knowledge database is a great place to start when you run into something you don’t understand, however, if you contact Memrise Support, the staff is extremely helpful, and in my experience responds within 24 hours. They have even sent me step-by-step instructions with pictures to walk me through how to do a few different things.
4. Memrise is not just to learn languages.
It can be used for anything that requires memorization. Examples of available courses are:
| • morse code • geography • chemistry • biology • math • memory techniques • Advanced Placement Tests |
• SAT vocabulary • GRE • US standard information for driving tests • trivia • Yoga poses and vocabulary • Scrabble 3-letter words • Chess opening moves |
And remember, since you can create your own courses, Memrise can be used to help you remember anything.
5. Other Recommended Memrise Spanish Courses
To keep you going with Spanish, I also wanted to suggest a few other good courses for you to try out.
Spanish Verb Conjugation: For me, one of the hardest areas when learning a language is how to conjugate the verbs. If you tackle this course early in your learning, it will make life easier for you as you become more fluent.
Hacking Spanish: This course will help you to learn some of the tips, tricks, hints and ideas for how to learn Spanish faster and more efficiently.
350 Spanish Sayings: This is a great course to work through once your Spanish has reached an intermediate level. It will help you learn some Spanish versions of sayings like “a chip off the old block” and “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”.
Puerto Rican Spanish: This last course is a sample I created to show you how to use Memrise to learn a dialect or Spanish from a certain country or region. It’s too short to be of much use, however, it will give you a good idea of what you can create on your own.
6. Memrise Madness Facebook Group
The Memrise Madness Group on Facebook is a place where you can ask questions about the best courses for a certain language, general questions about Memrise or just talk with people from around the world who share your interest in language learning. There’s even an employee or two from Memrise who answer questions and share information that isn’t widely known yet.
This is a closed group so you must request authorization to join but that should happen quickly.
Felicitaciones, at this point you finished the Memrise module of Start Spanish Today and are ready to move on.
By now you have:
• Started memorizing Spanish vocabulary
• Learned about spaced repetition learning and how it can improve how you learn Spanish
• Learned about other features of Memrise for you to explore on your own
Your next steps are to continue using Memrise daily, continue using italki when possible, and move on to the next lessons where you learn about the other tools recommended in Start Spanish Today.