Vocabulary Quiz Structure
Taking a Quiz for the First Time
When you take a vocabulary quiz for the first time, you will be given a set of 12 words (or fewer) to start with. We know how difficult it can be to remember new vocabulary words, so we start you out slowly with shorter sets to give you a chance to focus on just a few words at a time. Once you reach the end of the set of 12, you will be shown a progress page.
If there are more words that need to be reviewed in the list, the quiz will auto-advance to the next set of words. When this happens, you will see a five-second countdown at the bottom of the page. If you'd like to stop the auto-advance, you can click the "Cancel" button at the bottom of the page. If you want to continue with the remainder of the words, you can click "Continue practicing". If you'd like to go back to the main Vocabulary page, click the "X" in the top-left corner of the page.
Typing Accents
To type accents on a computer keyboard, press and hold the key for the letter that you need to modify until it changes to the accented version.
On mobile devices, you will need to touch and hold the letter that you need to modify (or the punctuation mark for the ¡ and ¿). Then, when a bar of options pops up, you will need to maintain your touch on the screen and slide your finger over to the character that you want. When your finger is on top of the correct character, then you can release your touch to insert that letter or symbol in the text box. It will look similar to this:
Returning to a List That You Started in the Past
If you've practiced some of the words in a list in the past and then returned to the list to finish it, you might be presented with a very short quiz to begin with. This is because the system needs to finish introducing the brand-new words to you before moving on to reviewing all of the words in the list for the second time through.
If you have already gone through a full list once, any time you go back to the list in the future the words will be grouped into sets of 12 or fewer so that you can move through the quiz more quickly.
Spaced Repetition in Vocabulary Quizzes
The progress page has different colored dots to mark words that have been reviewed, words that need to be reviewed, and any remaining words that do not fit into either of those groups. These labels factor into our spaced-repetition system, which is available to all users.
If you want to learn more about what spaced repetition is, see our explanation here. And this article explains the data behind our spaced-repetition system: Learn 1,000 Words in 15 Hours
When you answer a question for the first time in a vocabulary quiz, that word enters the spaced-repetition system. If you answer the question correctly, the word will be marked as "Reviewed", and it will disappear from your quizzes for a few weeks to give you a chance to focus on other words. If you answer the question incorrectly on the first try, it will come back into your list to be reviewed again the next day. Once you answer it correctly, it will disappear for a few weeks.
If a word or phrase appears on more than one of your lists, the review schedule for that vocabulary term will be linked to the first time you received it in a quiz. It won't have separate review schedules for each list.
When it's time to review a word (or phrase) again, the dot will change from dark green to light green, and the word will have the status of "Need review". It will reappear in its original list(s) as well as in the cumulative "All My Words" list.
When you answer a "Need review" word correctly on the first try, it will disappear again for a while. If you answer the word incorrectly, it will come back again sooner than if it had been answered correctly.
Cumulative Vocabulary Quiz
If you would like to work through a significant portion of your words in one sitting, SpanishDictionary.com offers the option of taking a cumulative vocabulary quiz. The "All My Words" quiz combines all of the vocabulary words and phrases from all of your individual lists into one cumulative quiz.
When you navigate to your Vocabulary home page (click "Vocabulary" in the menu), there will be a list called "All My Words" and a progress bar at the bottom of the "All My Words" box. There are two ways to access the cumulative vocabulary quiz: you can click on the "All My Words" button in the vocabulary section, or you can click on the "Quiz All Words" button at the top-right of the page.
When you start the cumulative quiz, you will be presented with sets of up to 12 words. If you have any new words in the list that you have never been tested on before, you will receive up to four of those new words alongside a set of "Need review" words that add up to 12. You will continue to receive sets of 12 as you work through the long list.