Why are you marked wrong fo the slightest thing?

Question

In the learning.

Answer 1

I remember feeling a similar frustration with the flashcards early on. But you should view these as a learning exercise. Your success at earning perfect scores is not the goal. The computer-automated scorekeeper is not perfect, and serves its purpose well, considering the cost (free). If your answer is marked wrong for what seems to you a trivial difference, then you must clearly know the right answer, and you score success where it matters most -- in your knowledge. Just think of it as the best way to learn and practice Spanish, where you are sure to get way more than your money's worth

• great answer - Heidita Aug 30, 2010

Answer 2

Hi oxen, welcome to the forum

Can you give an example? In any case, often you are either right or wrong, it is not a question of a big mistake or a small one

Answer 3

Because heidio is a perfectionist so are all the people that study languages.

But remember just take the corrections you feel that will help you in your learning process.

Answer 4

If you're referring to the flashcards, it's because they are not graded by a human. A computer checks to see if you answer exactly matches the one it has been told is the right answer. 'a' and 'á' are different characters, and in the computer's 'mind', totally distinct, so a mistake that involves forgetting an accent mark is just as wrong as writing a completely wrong letter to the computer.

Answer 5

There are, of course, many kinds of errors and some are, indeed, more important than others (in a particular context). However, bear in mind, that the omission/presence of an accent or the substitution of one letter for another can (and often does) produce an entirely different word/tense.

As already mentioned, computers are very intolerant of "errors" (they are, after all, basically binary entities [for a computer, it's right or wrong, close doesn't count]). Humans are much better at figuring out what you "meant to say/write" but they, too, can be confused by certain kinds of "trivial" errors.