Hi, it's Louis.

Over the past few months, I've been working on rebuilding JLPTMatome as a brand new version. Most of the existing features are still here and have been improved. There are quite a few new additions as well.

I'm really happy to finally be able to share version 3 with you.

More detailed lessons

A lot of the work on v3 went into the lessons. The kanji, vocabulary and grammar pages have more explanations and more example sentences. They still cover N5 to N1, but there's much more detail to study in this version.

Verb lessons now include full conjugation tables, with familiar and polite forms. Grammar lessons have more detail about how each pattern is formed and used, with examples of the different forms. The examples also have furigana, English translations and Japanese audio.

Kanji lessons have interactive writing practice alongside the stroke-order animations. You can practise writing the character directly on the page, with feedback on your strokes. I've also expanded the search and filters across the lesson lists.

Learned lessons and custom decks

Version 3 adds learned status for kanji, vocabulary and grammar lessons. You can now keep track of learned and not learned lessons in your account, alongside your saved favorites.

Custom decks are another addition. You can put lessons into your own named collections and use them in flashcard drills. A deck can contain kanji, vocabulary and grammar together, and the same lesson can belong to several decks.

Lessons can be added to a deck straight from the lesson page, including a new deck you create there. The new deck tools also include search and subject filters for your saved lessons.

Reworked flashcard drills

The flashcard drills now work with your saved decks. Instead of the previous fixed nine-card sessions, you can choose between three and nine cards and adjust the mix of saved lessons and other material at your level.

Drill results have been updated as well, with a breakdown of your answers and mistakes for each card. You can choose which cards to keep in your mistakes deck for another session.

Rebalanced JLPT simulations

The JLPT simulations have been rebalanced to better match the difficulty of the real JLPT. They're also shorter than in the previous version.

All the question sets are new, and I've put particular care into the listening audio.

The result pages have also been reworked, with answer review by section and transcripts for the listening questions. Practice histories have more filters, and the expanded simulation charts show overall and individual section scores, plus average performance by subject.

Discussion rooms and Matom'Arena

There are some big additions to the community too. Discussion rooms give us a place to talk about Japanese, ask questions and share what we're studying. Posts have replies and cheers, and you can send cheers to other members as well.

Matom'Arena is a new competition mode where you challenge another learner to build Japanese phrases against a timer. Battles are played in separate turns, so you don't need to be online at the same time. It also has its own seasonal ranking.

The activity rankings have been expanded too, with monthly rankings alongside the weekly ones.

Challenges, streaks and achievement badges

Daily challenges have been expanded with tasks for the new features, including learned lessons and Arena battles. There's a weekly overview of your tasks and progress, with reward chests for completed days.

The new streak map has daily check-ins, milestones and rewards of its own. The level system has also been updated with a view of the levels, ranks and rewards ahead of you.

Achievement badges are new too. Your collection appears on your profile alongside your study totals, and other members can see the badges you've earned.

Daruma clothing and the shop

And your Daruma has a wardrobe now! The shop has clothing, accessories and complete outfits, available with the Study Coins you earn through activities. There's a dressing room for trying different combinations and choosing how your Daruma appears on your profile and around the community.

The mobile app

The mobile app is ready too. I plan to release it in the next few days, and I'll share the download links when it's available.

For now, the v3 website is available in a browser on your computer or phone.

Thank you for your patience over the past few months. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of v3! If you have feedback or find something that needs fixing, please send me a message.

Happy studying!
Louis