What’s new in 1.80.0: the explanations that were hard to follow, rewritten

On October 23, a user wrote to tell us they read the explanation after almost every question, but often found it unclear and hard to follow.

We looked again, and they were right. Many of the old explanations just restated the answer in different words. If you chose wrong, they told you what was right but not what was wrong with your choice.

So we started with Part 2 and Part 5 and kept going, all the way to Part 7 in this release. Update when 1.80.0 is available in your store; release times can differ by platform.

Part 7 explanations: the answer first, then the evidence and what went wrong

Every new explanation follows the same order: which option is correct, which sentence in the passage proves it, and why each of the other options is wrong. Here is one question. It asks when Patricia Huang will receive the badges.

The old explanation:

The confirmation email states that the four attendee badges will be emailed separately by June 1.

The new explanation:

(A) is right: the confirmation email says the badges "will be emailed separately by June 1". (B) June 14 is the day booth setup begins, not the badge date. (C) The badges are not sent when she registers; they come later. (D) Nothing says they arrive after the expo; the expo is June 14–16 and June 1 is before it.

If you picked (B), the old explanation only gave you the right date, and you had to go back to the passage to find out what June 14 was. Now that step is in the explanation.

The original sentence is quoted directly, so you can find the same line in the passage. For double and triple passage sets, the explanation says which passage holds the evidence, so you don't have to reread the whole set.

The explanations were rewritten Part by Part: Parts 2 and 5 in 1.75.0, Parts 1, 3 and 4 in 1.76.0, Part 6 in 1.78.0, and Part 7 in this release.

A few things to know:

• The explanations are built into the app, so you need 1.80.0 to see the new Part 7 ones.
• If a question is still unclear, report it from the question itself. That is how this rewrite started.

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Part 7 questions: 174 fixed, 14 passage sets now agree

Rewriting the explanations meant rereading every question, and that turned up problems in the questions themselves. This release fixes the options or stems of 174 questions, and 14 passage sets whose dates, numbers or rules contradicted each other now line up.

The answer letters did not change, so your past answer history is not affected.

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Phrase cards: press to listen

When you browse phrase cards, the phrase and its example sentence each have a play button. One press plays it once, regardless of the autoplay setting, so even with autoplay off you can hear just the card you want.

Playback uses the device’s own voice. If the device has no English voice, the two buttons are not shown.

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The iPhone silent-mode audio problem is fixed

On an iPhone set to silent, the app could go quiet after you closed an audio player. That is fixed.

The audio players also show the app icon on the lock screen, in Control Center and on Apple Watch.

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Parts 1 and 2: the spoken A is no longer hoarse

In Parts 1 and 2, the letter A read out on its own had a slightly hoarse ending. This release replaces all of those with clearer recordings. The question content and option order did not change.

The new audio is swapped in automatically. If you turned off automatic downloads, some Part 1 and 2 audio may need to be downloaded once more before you can use it offline.

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Enter your score in Settings and the estimate updates

Before, entering an official score in Settings did not change your estimate, and the score card never appeared. Now it works the same way as the score card on the home screen: your estimate updates right away and the score card opens.

If the score you add is not from your most recent exam, the app only records it and tells you that your current estimate will not change.

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After updating to 1.80.0, redo a Part 7 question you got wrong before and see whether the explanation is easier to follow. For the previous release, read What’s new in 1.79.0.