Need advice, please.
Hola,
I am on Spanish 2.1 and up until now I thought that I was doing well. However I am becoming so frustrated that I am on the verge of quiting. I have passed all sections of Spanish 1 with no less than 950 points on every lesson. With the lowest scores on recall sections. I can understand, speak and follow along pretty well. I struggle through all recall sections, spelling Spanish seems to be my downfall. I am not sure if I should keep going on with Spanish 2 and keep reviewing all Spanish 1 recalls or should quit Spanish 2 and take Spanish 1 over again. Any advice? Gracias
15 Answers
Well NayNay I think you & I have the same problem Spanish words are a little bit hard specially if they have accents on them it takes me at least 5 seconds to type the accent and of course that makes me lose points on the recall section so 10% of the points that you're missing are probably because the timer of the recall section counts so fast.
I recommend you to continue to learn Spanish 2 & when you finish it you can review both of them (1,2) 
P.S : 
Thank you all for your words of encouragement. I also agree with each and every response. It's not that I spell the words wrong, but by the time I sound, spell and get the accent marks typed that little timer is taking all of my points away. Then I receive a low score and it makes me feel bad. I am so glad to know that I am not alone. Knowing this, I will keep going. I don't like quiting anything! Again, thank you all so much. I almost quit something that I would have regreted. Your Amigo, Nay 
Well my advice on giving up is without any doubt "Nay, Nay"!!!! I'm in the same boat as you so just keep plugging at it.
Hola, after reading through all the respones I have I come up with a solution. I did not know that you can create your own flashcards here. So this weekend I will re-take the recall sections of Spanish 1 and create flashcards for only words that I am having trouble with. I agree that if I don't keep moving through Spanish 2 I will become bored. I was feeling alittle frustrated this morning. Thanks again for all your advice. Nay
As a person who was also used to getting good grades but who constantly "loses" points on the typing portion, I only have this advice: Let it go.
There is no way that you will ever be able to type fast enough and take the time to select the correct tilde and not "lose" points. No one ever looks at someone else's scores (or, at least I can't imagine why anyone would) and the point of this whole thing is not to rack up points but, in the end, to actually learn how to speak Spanish.
Now that you've discovered the Flashcards, use the ones created by some of the administrators and frequent SD users. They are excellent and free from errors. Many of the sets created by students for studying are not very reliable. You can find them by clicking on the "sets" next to their names in the flashcard section.
I have a sneaking suspician that to get a "perfect" score you might need voice-recognition software. I think that only Jesus could type fast enough to get all 10's on that section....just a guess.
In the end, my advice is, don't give up......ever.
people who never give up always get succeded in life.first when i was learning it seems to me impossible but with the passage of tome enerything become fine so keep on trying u will get what u want. yo rezáre por ti
I, too, have problems with recall. It is the section that we type in what we have memorized. It's the section that really lets me know if I have the words in my short or long term memory. I remember creating a flashcard set for greetings I couldn't remember. Now, those greetings are easier for me. I must have gone over the recall portions of the lessons time and again. And each time I learned something new. And I remembered more and could type the answer in quicker. I have trouble with the accents and tildes and I just don't worry about my time and score anymore. The important concept is to know the word, and be able to use it in a sentence.
Hope all these suggestions from different members help you to stay focused on your goals!
I agree with everyone else - don't stop now !!! Give yourself time to assimilate what you have learned. Your brain needs time and repetition to store it in the long-term memory. When we learn something, we tend to store the pieces of information in the short-term memory. How many times have you started one of those self-taught language courses and all is well for a few weeks or months, then you leave it for a few days and when you come back to it, you have forgotten most things? To commit to long-term memory requires repetition and perseverance.
Keep going!! Courage !!
Hey! This is all about "not giving up" :O Let me tell you something, I'm 18 years old, and I've been studying English since I was 7. And it has been only 1 year and 4 months since I started learning Spanish. In January 2010 I was totally dissapointed because my Spanish friends came to Turkey and I just wasn't understand what they were saying! I think I cried like 2 weeks... Why can't I do this? But I didn't give up... And, day by day I started to speak fluently which wasn't exactly the thing I was expecting... So here I am! I started to understand even the literature! :O
Anyway " D O N T _ G I V E _ U P _ D O N T _ G I V E _ I N !!!!! "
If you think that the things you are doing are not sufficent, you may buy a practise book or grammar book! Or simply repeating the things like a maniac! Good luck!!!
I would keep going and reviewing Spanish one. Spainsh is phonetic so every word is spelled almost just as it sounds. You could try writing the words over in your own handwriting instead of typing, that helps me!
Hi! Congrats on getting high scores on your lessons! My advice to you is not to give up!! Struggling with learning anything new is normal and natural. But if you quit now, you will never realize what you can achieve! If you feel you need to repeat some lessons, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I've done it, I'm sure loads of other people have too. It sounds like what you are going through is totally normal.
Don't give up, we are all pulling for you!
I would say redo lesson 2.1 until it doesn't cause you problems. Redoing all of Spanish 1 lessons may make you bored and, thus, discourage you a different way.
Also, sometimes it's good to take a few days off from Spanish altogether. Sometimes even several weeks' rest is good.
Hi, NayNay! I have taken Spanish 1 and 2 over a couple of times. I am finally getting the spelling, but I always have to review. That is nothing to be ashamed of. I have trouble in English with spelling as well. I am a little older than some of the other students so I need to practice a lot more. I think you are doing very well. I decided to take a class at the Junior College and that helps a lot. Even that Spanish 1 class is more work that I thought, so it never hurts to review. And you can keep going on with your lessons. The Practice Makes Perfect Workbooks Series are also great practice. Don't give up. Make notecards and keep going!
Being a fast and accurate typist is certainly not a bad thing but it has little to do with knowing Spanish. There are various ways to deal with the special requirements of typing Spanish (tildes, punctuation, etc.) and some are faster than others but all of them require practice (and are mainly matters of manual dexterity).
Consider the posts of our own dear Heidita. It would be silly to suggest that she doesn't know Spanish but she does sometimes seem to have problems typing (one supposes that her fingers just can't keep up with her brain). So I suspect that, she too, would lose points with such a scoring system (either because of having to take the time to double/triple check for typos or for finishing faster but leaving the typos).
The only time speed really matters is in real conversations when one needs to speak/understand rapidly enough to keep up with the flow. In that case, however, there's no typing involved at all.
Nay nay I can understand your fustration but would encourage you to keep on learning.and continue with the next unit.
I have experienced similar fustrations with the recall unit because of a mild degree of learning difficulty called Dyspraxia which maent that in practice I found it hard to type quickly and so could not always gain high or consistent scores in this section especially under pressure of time,they would vary from 947 - 976/8
Look at the overall score and don't worry or compare your scores unfavourably with others just build upon your existing knowledge and understanding of Spanish and view these scores simply as a crude/rough guide to your existing development...not as the final word on your abilty so far!
I hope this helps Remember: keep going Never give up !!! I speak as one who has been tempted before to give up and am glad I never did lol
