My Score is Lower Than it Should Be

Does your speaking practice percentage score seem lower than it should be? 

Don't worry! It doesn't mean your pronunciation is terrible. Sometimes the score is indeed lower because of pronunciation errors, but other times it can be due to factors outside of your control.

Nothing Was Recognized

If you keep getting 1% or if it says "nothing was recognized" every time, there is probably a technical problem. We want to help you get it working! Read more here for common solutions or to contact us: Technical Help with the Speaking Practice Activity

I Said it Correctly, But My Score Was Less Than 100%

It’s best to think of the percentage as how confident our system is that it understood what you said, rather than a precise measure of accuracy.

The score can also be affected by background noise, microphone quality, connection speed, and the existence of lots of similar-sounding words.

Lower scores are particularly common with very short phrases. With such a brief sound bite there's not as much room for error.

When in doubt... play back your recording. Does it sound pretty close to the original audio? If so, it's okay to move forward or skip. Keep in mind that these percentages won’t affect your overall unit score.

We do our best to improve and tweak the tool, of course, but we just want you to understand the complicated factors that go into speech analysis so that you don't take a lower percentage too seriously.

By the way, if your playback sounds quiet, muffled, or cut off, these suggestions may help: Tips for a Clear Recording