Major Update! - December 3, 2018

[Pushindawood]

For all of you who took the JLPT on Sunday, we commend you on going out and challenging yourself! No matter what level JLPT you took, we know that you put in a lot of hard work and dedication. おつかれさまでした and nice work!

We have some exciting new features to introduce today!

• Track how many days in a row you have studied.
• Get motivated to make progress by earning XP, leveling up and collecting badges.
• Block out distractions and focus during reviews.

Study Streak

Bunpro now tracks the amount of consecutive days you have signed into Bunpro and have done at least one review. Staying consistent with your studies is key to improving your Japanese and maintaining a streak will help keep you motivated on your language learning journey. You will also be rewarded for staying on top of your reviews and racking up high streaks (see below).

If you do not have any reviews in your review queue, the Cram function will also count toward your daily streak so you never miss a day.

XP

Everyone will now earn experience points from reviewing grammar on Bunpro. Every time you put in a correct answer for a grammar point in reviews, you will receive XP. The amount of XP you earn is directly proportional to the grammar point’s current streak.

If you are reviewing a grammar point for the first time and you get it correct, you will receive 10XP. Each consecutive time you see the same grammar point appear in your reviews it will be worth more and more XP.

XP Breakdown by Streak

Streak 1: 10XP
Streak 2: 20XP
Streak 3: 30XP
Streak 4: 40XP
Streak 5: 50XP
Streak 6: 60XP
Streak 7: 70XP
Streak 8: 80XP
Streak 9: 90XP
Streak 10: 100XP
Streak 11: 150XP
Streak 12: 200XP

The amount of XP you have earned can be viewed under the Account dropdown or on your Profile page.

Levels and Badges

You can now level up in Bunpro! Your level corresponds to the amount of XP you have earned from reviewing grammar. The amount of XP required for reaching the next level is shown on the right side of the XP progress bar in Reviews or in the Account dropdown.

You will also be rewarded with badges, medals and other achievements for earning a certain number of XP, leveling up, staying consistent with your studies, or completing hidden challenges.

Focus

Introducing a new way to review on Bunpro. We know that there are a lot of distractions in life and we wanted to cut down on as many of them as possible so you get the most out of your grammar learning. To better maintain focus on your studies, you now have the ability to hide the heads-up display (HUD) in reviews. This includes the top menu bar, your remaining review count, percentage, SRS and ghost review indicators, and your XP progress bar.

Simply click Focus On in the dropdown menu in reviews to turn on Focus. Set Focus to your default review set up in Settings.

With these new features in place, you will be able to visualize your progress and be motivated to study every day. We are looking forward to hearing what you think! Cheers!

[Omun]

Nice additions!

Streaks have been motivating in the past, though I also find that they can be demotivating. When I had a 90-something day streak in something and lost it due to carelessness, my motivation slumped a lot for a while. I know my wife had the same with regards to her Duolingo streak when she was still using that back in the day.

Is there any way the streak feature can be made a toggle?

I’ll definitely be trying the Focus feature, because I can sometimes get a little distract-- Oh hey, a butterfly to chase-!

[Andulien]

Wow so many cool nice additions. I really like the idea of XP and getting badges
Could it be that you don’t gain XP for Ghost reviews?

Also I’ll definitely will be trying out the Focus feature, it always bugged me to have so much other stuff around the review that takes my attention away.

Thanks also for listening to other feedback - Progress Bar up top YAY!!!

Like @Omun said, the streak is a nice addition, but what if I miss a day? Will there be a way to pause if you are away for some time or do some special reviews to make up for the day missed?

Is there any way the streak feature can be made a toggle?

Would it be possible to display your level also here in the Forum? I know WK has something like that with the WK Levels including their membership color (subbed, paid, lifetime)

[Pushindawood]

@Omun Thank you for your comment and feedback! We understand that streaks can have a demotivational aspect to them and this was one of the reasons that we did not include any streak notifications or anything too flashy. We also just wanted to make streak information available to you so that we could get your feedback on how to best improve and tune them to you. We do not currently have a way to toggle streak information, but it is something that we can look into. Let us know what you think about the Focus feature after you have used it a bit. Cheers!

@Andulien Thank you for your feedback! We are glad that you like badges! Right now you can only get XP once for a sentence. Since Ghost Reviews use a sentence that you have already reviewed and gained XP for, you cannot earn additional XP on them. However, XP is still in its early stages and we can always make changes to how it functions.

We hope that you like the Focus feature and the readjusted review progress bar!

We will see what we can do about perhaps pausing streaks or making them toggleable in the future. We are also working on getting everyone’s level displayed on the forums. Stay tuned! Cheers!

[Liras348]

I’m really liking these additions to the website. Great work!

I also agree that the level should be displayed in the forum, if that’s possible.

[Ambo100]

This is brilliant! I always find myself more motivated to study with achievements so I hope to see more added soon.

[greasyButter]

Can we have the level indications on the forums as well?

[conan]

Since Ghost Reviews use a sentence that you have already reviewed and gained XP for, you cannot earn additional XP on them.

What about for the last SRS on a ghost review? Just as a little “woo, it’s gone, you did it!” sort of thing?

ps love this update :3

[Andulien]

“woo, it’s gone, you did it!” sort of thing?

Well at least on the first Ghost Kill you get a badge for it hehe I’m curious to find out what other Badges one can attain as they seem to be hidden

[Feythelus]

This is fantastic! thank you. I love a good exp tracker and hidden challenges!

[Gabrielmpf]

Great update! I’ve been using BunPro everyday for several weeks and it keeps getting better.
I also have mixed feelings about the streak and how it can become demotivating in a blink of an eye, if you miss a day. I’ll try to stay on top of it, since I use it everyday, regardless.

I, too, have the example of Duoling’s streak, which is still active from the very beginning and marks my days of learning Japanese so far (126), so I don’t want to lose it. It’s a psychological thing, I guess, but quite motivating if you stay on top of it. One of the first things I do when I turn on my phone in the morning is to do my daily goal.

Happy studies, 皆さん

[seanblue]

I also have mixed feelings about the streak and how it can become demotivating in a blink of an eye, if you miss a day.

When I first lost my year-and-a-half streak on iKnow, it crushed all of my motivation.

[PeterWhite]

Awesome update! Too bad the daily streak starts from 3 days ago because I’ve been doing >20 items every day for just over a month.

This should give some more motivation to go back and drill old reviews using the cram feature.

[Gabrielmpf]

Can’t imagine that. I have a 126 day-streak on Duolingo and I’m afraid of what’d happen to my motivation if I lost all that. But a one year and a half… It must’ve been hard to recover from that, but you’re here, so that’s a good sign

[cjswanson1355]

Can I remove the xp bar when doing reviews? I find it distracting.

[seanblue]

Well I’m not using iKnow anymore, mostly because I didn’t think I was getting enough value out of it. But I still use WaniKani and Bunpro and read books/manga in the WaniKani book clubs.

[conan]

Perhaps there could be a “gamify” option in the settings? For those more casual or who aren’t into the idea, they can just toggle the whole system off?

As an aside, I’m just gonna ignore the daily streak and focus on XP. It’s too disheartening for me when I miss a day, but I know some people can enjoy it or really need it, which is why it’s there.

[Ambo100]

I suppose you could use the new ‘Focus’ setting in the dropdown menu for reviews.

[Swinter]

This is awful. The focus toggle is not a reasonable solution, because the menu is actually something I need. I was enjoying my trial and was excited to subscribe long term, but these video game distractions kill my desire to study.

[Pushindawood]

@Liras348 and @greasyButter Thank you both for your comment and kind words! We are working on getting the levels integrated into the forums so that they are displayed alongside your profile picture. Stay tuned. Cheers!

@Ambo100 Thank you for feedback! We will continue to update the available achievements and are open to any suggestions that you might have. Cheers!

@Feythelus Thank you for your feedback! Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to improve your experience. Cheers!

@Gabrielmpf and @seanblue Thank you for your feedback on streak. We will continue to tinker with it to see if we cannot find a better way to implement it. Cheers!

@PeterWhite Thank you for your comment! Currently the streak tracker is based on UTC. It keeps track of whenever the last review was, rounded down to midnight so any review within the 24 hour period after 0:00 am counts as a review for that day. We are working on tracking when you do a review just within the last 24 hours, regardless of timezone, so your streak might get a little boost here soon. Cheers!

@conan Thank you for your suggestion on adding the ability to turn of the gamify aspect of the site. It is something that we are looking into. Cheers!

@Swinter Thank you for your feedback. We are looking into ways to better tune, or simply turn off the new features so that you can continue to use Bunpro in a way that works best for you. We are also thinking about implementing a keyboard shortcut to more easily toggle focus mode so that you have more immediate access to the menu items you desire. Cheers!