Modern-day nautical experts

[Mickhael]

English Language Proficiency Tests, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #840 "The Discovery of America", question 9

Modern daynautical experts agree that ......... currents could have easily taken the monk around the Asian coast to Alaska, then down the coast of America. As a learned scholar, Hoei-Shin would have wanted to explore this new land.

(a) prevailing
(b) preventing
(c) precognitive
(d) prehensile

English Language Proficiency Tests, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #840 "The Discovery of America", answer 9

Modern daynautical experts agree that prevailing currents could have easily taken the monk around the Asian coast to Alaska, then down the coast of America. As a learned scholar, Hoei-Shin would have wanted to explore this new land.

Correct answer: (a) prevailing

Your answer was: correct
_________________________

Hello Everyone,

I have found a mistake, look at below: "Modern daynautical experts agree that prevailing currents could have easily taken the monk around the Asian coast to Alaska, then down the coast of America."
It should be "day nautical" instead of "daynautical". We need a space between "day" and "nautical".
Kind regards,

[Mister Micawber]

Thanks, Mickhael. I have repaired the punctuation and spacing in that test. The revision will appear with our next data update.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Beeesneees]

This test has already been corrected on the database.
I'm sorry if this has not been reflected on the web-pages.
It seems that the corrections made by some of us are not being picked up.
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Mister Micawber]

Hmm. I guess it takes time. When did you fix that, BN?
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Beeesneees]

I didn't. I just checked and found it had already been fixed by someone (if it was me, it must have been a very long time ago).
This one too:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/sutra395816.html#395816

I've mentioned to Torsten previously that I don't think the changes are being picked up from the database in a timely manner.
Here are examples from several months ago:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic78259.html#in_your_element
http://www.english-test.net/forum/sutra366438.html#366438
and this one dates right back to February:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/sutra342461.html#342461

Is the database only uploaded once a year?
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Mister Micawber]

Well, I thought it was once every month or so. I think Torsten mentioned that in a post or communication a year or so ago, but I've forgotten precisely.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Goldhat]

We are rebuilding the entire test system and database and the plan is to review all of the tests systematically using a quality assurance process. We would love some help from each of you when we are ready to start that process! Volunteers very welcome there :)

As a result of the rebuild we are not going to do any updates until the new testing engine is in place because these small changes and fixes distract from the main development.

We are not going to do "spot checking" or rely on fixing one problem at a time. In the future every test question will be reviewed in a 3-step QA process, which should result in an error rate of less than 1 error per 1,000 questions.

Thanks for bringing this issue up and giving me the chance to talk about our plans. I think you be very happy to see the new test authoring tools which will be much easier to use.
_________________
Joel Milne,
English-Test.net Developer

[Mister Micawber]

Hi Joel,

It would have been nice if someone had talked about the plans much earlier; it would have saved some volunteers a lot of useless work. Anyway, please let us know when the new system is in place. I will waste no further effort trying to correct mistakes manually.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Et-admin]

We should be able to merge in all the changes so I don't think any work will be wasted. I was just responding more to the issue of why the updates are not being done, and trying to convey that I'm not going to spend the time trying to determine if a certain test has been updated properly, or chasing down reported issues, because it uses programming time that is better put toward building the new system. But all the questions will be moved, and we will take the latest versions which should include all the fixes made.

We might want to stop editing just before the migration which will be still some time from now, 2-3 months.

[Beeesneees]

Sorry, but I agree that this should have been mentioned long before now.
Updates have not been made for months. To review one test question involves going through the entire test and I'm not going to risk the possibility of any changes I make from here on in being 'lost in migration', as it were.
I won't be correcting any more tests until the system updates correctly.
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett