Your tutor teaches. PrepChi drills.
You do great in the lesson — then a week later half the words are gone. PrepChi is a free Mandarin drilling app for the six days between classes: audio-first flashcards, listening drills, and dialogues that make what you were taught actually stick.
No card, no catch. Sign in with your email.
Free, and you're in in under a minute
Enter your email
No password to create, nothing to install.
Get your login code
We email you a 6-digit code. Type it in — that's your sign-in.
Start drilling
You're in the app: audio-first flashcards, listening drills, and dialogues from a real beginner-Mandarin course, with spaced repetition so words stick.
Your tutor teaches. PrepChi drills.
A real beginner-Mandarin course, drilled audio-first — so the words hold between lessons.
The words every course starts with
Foundational vocabulary from the real first weeks of a beginner Mandarin course — greetings, numbers, time, dates — not a random word list.
Audio-first, two voices
Every word and sentence spoken in two natural AI voices — one male, one female — at normal and slow speed. Train your ear, not just your eyes.
Spaced repetition that talks back
Hear Chinese → recall the meaning. See English → say it aloud. The schedule brings words back right before you'd forget them.
Endless listening drills
Numbers, prices, and clock times generated fresh every session — the things you can't fake your way through in conversation.
Dialogue roleplay
Play your side of realistic conversations built from the course's own dialogues. The app speaks the partner's lines.
A real beginner course
Units from greetings and introductions through numbers, time, dates, duration, and shopping — each with audio and its own review deck.
Questions
What is PrepChi?
A free practice app for people taking 1:1 Chinese lessons. It drills foundational Mandarin the way your tutor's early lessons do — audio-first flashcards, listening drills, sentence patterns, and dialogues, all with realistic Mandarin audio — so what you learn in class actually sticks.
Is it really free?
Yes. Sign in with your email and you're in — no card, no subscription, nothing to cancel. We email you a one-time code to log in; that's the only thing we need from you.
How is this different from Duolingo or Anki?
Duolingo teaches its curriculum; PrepChi drills the kind your tutor teaches — the real first weeks of a 1:1 Mandarin course. Compared to Anki, the deck is already built for you, with audio-first exercises — listening drills, pattern practice, dialogue roleplay — that a plain flashcard app doesn't have.
What devices does it work on?
Any device with a browser — phone, tablet, or computer. There's nothing to install; you sign in with your email and open it anywhere. Practice progress is currently saved per device.
I don't have a tutor — can I still use it?
Absolutely. PrepChi shines as a companion to 1:1 lessons, but it works as a standalone beginner Mandarin drill too — the vocabulary, patterns, and audio stand on their own.
What do you do with my email?
We use it to send your login codes and, once in a while, a note about a major update. That's it — no spam, no selling your data, nothing shared. Want it deleted? Email hello@prepchi.com.
Other languages?
Chinese first — tones and characters are where audio-first practice matters most. The approach works for any language, and Chinese is where we're proving it out.
Why I built this
I'm Israel, a software engineer taking weekly 1:1 Mandarin lessons. I had the exact problem this page describes: great in class, then a week later half the vocabulary was gone. Rereading my tutor's PDFs before the next lesson didn't fix it.
So I built myself a practice app from those same handouts — every word and sentence with realistic audio, spaced-repetition flashcards in both directions, endless drills for the numbers and clock times I kept fumbling. Fifteen minutes a day, and I stopped spending the first part of every lesson relearning the last one.
PrepChi is that system. The lessons in it come from my own tutor's course — the first two months of real 1:1 Mandarin, drilled the way I wish I'd had from day one. It's free to use; sign in with your email and start. Questions? Email me: hello@prepchi.com.
Make this week's lesson stick
Free to use — sign in with your email and you're drilling in under a minute. Audio-first flashcards, listening drills, and dialogues with realistic Mandarin audio, built from a real 1:1 course.
No card. No spam — we email you a login code, and that's it.