When I'm doing the flash cards I can't hear straight away!
Why is this? I am missing out on points on the listen section and on the recognize it won't show the pictures strait away!
6 Answers
That's usually a server error. It's having difficulties loading the pictures quickly usually because it's resources are being used elsewhere. There is not much you can do, but try it again later when the system allocates more resources to you.
It's hard to do, I have trouble with it myself, but don't place undo emphasis on your lesson scores. Concern yourself more on scoring 20 correct out of 20 attempts more than what score the program gives you due to typing speeds, server malfunctions, etc.
The lesson points have no significance. They are only there to help you to judge your performance.
straight away...strait is a different word.
I can help! The flash player makes the request for the mp3 (audio file containing the sample) as it's actually needed through the browser, each time it's played, rather than preloading them. If your connection isn't fast enough to start playing them straight away, you have to wait while it's downloaded and buffered enough to play, but you can get round this by making your browser cache the mp3, and force it to always use the cached version rather than check for a new one each time. First time will still be slow, but if you go through the flashcards first, that will cause each sound file to be downloaded and cached, then when you go to the listen exercise, they'll be all ready to play.
Doing this depends on the browser you're using, but for Internet Explorer 7/8, you do the following:
Click the Tools menu at the top (or press Alt+T if it's hiding) and click Internet Options. Click the first Settings button on the window that opens (under browsing history). You should be greeted with a window like the one below:
Change the option to Never (check for new versions) and make sure your cache is big enough to store all the images/sounds etc for a course, and give that a go. You'll probably want to switch back to your previous option once you're done, so you don't end up looking at old pages when you're browsing elsewhere on the web.
Hope this helps
the flash player makes the request for the mp3 (audio file containing the sample) as it's actually needed through the browser, each time it's played, rather than preloading them.
That sounds like something the tech people should address (write it to preload or simultaneously load like the videos do) rather than "on demand". We shouldn't have to implement workarounds requiring running the program twice to speed it up.
Thank you for the explanation, however. Very informative.
That sounds like something the tech people should address (write it to preload or simultaneously load like the videos do)
You wouldn't want to address it like that... the flash control doesn't give you a whole lot of control over caching, which means you'd have to attach all the audio+video files to each flash bit that uses it (rather than be able to share them across lessons etc as it looks like it's doing now) and load it into memory each time you use the flash, even if you don't use them at that time. It could push up their bandwidth by having to do this, although this of course may be countered by the fact that you only need it once per lesson, whereas if someone clicks 'play' a few times at the moment, that could cause them multiple hits on that file.
HOWEVER - not starting the timer countdown until after the sound has finished playing or the image has displayed would be a good compromise for people who do want to shoot for the high scores...
As for "We shouldn't have to implement workarounds"... this is a free site with a great deal of features, it's not going to be perfect (even a company with a budget like Microsoft still kick out buggy software). We that get use out of it shouldn't mind meeting half way 
Thank you
Ohh Hey thanks guys! that is helpful 
