I started learning vocabulary with Renshuu and it’s using multiple choice questions. Is this a waste of time or can you really learn vocabulary with Multiple choice questions?
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sure!!! if you are using the multiple choice option and you are worried about “learning”
turn on the hide option
click on your icon and then click the settings
then you can guess the answer before revealing the choices and if you know it you know it if not eventually you’ll learn it
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For me, multiple choice it’s far too easy to get the answer through process of elimination, not because you knew it. Helpful when exams are hard and you want more marks. Less helpful in the learning stage.
That said, there’s probably people who find multiple choice useful in the learning stage.
If this method is working for you it doesn’t matter if I say it doesn’t, and if it isn’t working for you it doesn’t matter if I swear it’s the only method that works. You’ll come across a lot of people with strong opinion on what the “right” way to study is.
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Thanks for the Tip with the settings. I didn’t knew about it yet and have changed it now.
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I don’t think that multiple choice is enough for me.
there’s a very active renshuu discord server, you can even link your account there
if you ever have questions about renshuu, great place to get help from other users super fast!
you can also always email them directly if you have questions
It’s hard to learn anything with multiple choice, but it is very good at making you feel like you’re learning though, which is why all the apps use it.
In learning, you need an initial learning stage, and then repeated recall and correction / relearning stages.
The problem with multi choice is that recall is harder than guessing from context, so your brain will do the latter if it can. To stop that, you need to set the choices at the right level and that’s very hard.
On top of that, there’s something about multi choice that makes people skip the relearning stage as well, people have a tendency to rush past the 
on option B and 
on option D result and not take in the correction.
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I deleted my Progress and I’m now learning again with the hide Option. And If I can’t Recall the Word I click on “keine Ahnung” (= “I don’t know”). And I also use the three Options “ein bisschen”, “gut”, “sehr gut” (= “a little bit”, “good”, “very good”).
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I’ve used multiple choice apps in the past and my answer is… yes and no!
I found that when I didn’t know a lot of vocab yet, I did indeed learn some through multiple choice. However, once I knew a lot of vocab, it became harder to retain them solely through the multiple choice.
I say “solely” because right now I do have one app that has the following flow:
- Here’s a vocab and some multiple choice. Pick out the right one
- Once answered, a video clip plays with the word. The sentence is also written. (It is possible to skip the clip to get to the next question)
I find that words where I took the time to really pay attention to the example sentence and audio I retain far better than words where I decided to go fast and just go to the next question. This means the non-multiple-choice part of the flow is giving me greater gains. However, I also find that it’s easier to pay attention to these sentences and derive the meaning because of the previously answered multiple choice. This explains why the combination of those two works better than when I learn a bunch of new words from reading alone, and better than when I used apps that just had multiple choice and nothing else. (To be clear, I still retain words from WK and other more arduous forms of study a lot better than anything, but this has helped make the words learned in multiple choice stick a good bit more)
If I recall, renshuu also has sample sentences. So I would say it’s fine that it’s multiple choice as long as you also take the time to understand and listen to the sample sentences (if audio is available). Multiple choice has flaws, lots of flaws, but there are ways to make it a bit better. And if you can, try to read books or manga or easy news because any chance to see those words in real content will help.
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yup!!! The sentence study is really nice. You can add example sentences by clicking the “+” to a separate review schedule, list.
I have been using renshuu for quite a long time and now I’m using the vocab and sentences via ttsu reader to anki, exporting to a spreadsheet and then importing to separate lists for myself reviewing from immersion. I really love the sentence review options they have. And if you have a pro account you can use the jlpt style reviews and crosswords on your own vocab as well.
Renshuu also has community lists. I built a couple of community lists for the survival jungle escape book anyone can use for vocab and sentences. I started one for the upcoming ocean escape bookclub as well, coming up in march. (didn’t read the 2nd snowy escape with the group so didn’t build that one).
Really great and underrated resource IMO.