Apr 26, 2013
Startups & Venture Capital
Testive tests SAT prep market
Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
W. Marc Bernsau
Only about 1 percent of all the 1.6 million students who take the SAT
every year receive the much-coveted perfect score of 2,400. As with any
test, there’s room for improvement — and the goal of Cambridge-based
Testive, which launched its test prep software SAT Habit last summer, is
to help each student achieve their best score.
“The overriding goal of the company is to help students increase their educational opportunities in life,” said CEO Miro Kazakoff, who founded Testive with Tom Rose in 2011.
SAT Habit is based around testing software developed by Rose at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As students work through the program and answer questions in various sub categories — today’s SAT test has three sections, in math, reading, and writing, for a potential of 800 points each — algorithms help pinpoint their weaknesses and knowledge gaps. Students are then given personalized content to help them improve. They can also get tips and feedback from other users, watch videos that walk them through the solutions to questions they answered, set goals, and monitor their progress.
“They’re always training not only in the right category, but at the right ability level,” Kazakoff said.
Boston Latin student Daniel Qiu has seen results. After using the software, the high school junior saw an improvement of nearly 400 points on his SAT, with a score of 2110, over his PSAT. “(SAT Habit) was the only thing I used to prep — no other websites, classes or books,” Qiu said.
So far, more than 7,000 students have used the software, which has three tiers of use: free (allowing students to answer 10 questions a day), unlimited for $49 a month, or personalized tutoring for $499 a month. Testive also has a series of test projection products that been licensed by companies including Kaplan Test Prep.
The software can ultimately work for any standardized test, but Testive chose to initially home in on the SAT because it’s the “biggest, most visible test in the country,” Kazakoff said.
“This governs what sort of opportunities people have for education in their life,” he said. “(And) education governs how we provide access to wealth and opportunity.”
The company’s six employees aren’t just developing the product — they’re using it, too. The whole team is signed up to take the SAT in June, prepping with SAT Habit and tutoring each other in the interim. Kazakoff, who’s taken the SAT several years in a row — most recently scoring 780 in reading, 790 in writing, and under 700 in math — said he hopes to make it a company tradition.
“One of the challenges of education technology companies, is it’s really hard to be your own customer,” he said.
Although initially funded by the co-founders, Testive announced a $500,000 seed round in December from several angel investors, including Jean Hammond, Eileen Rudden, Dharmesh Shah and Bill Warner.
Looking ahead, Kazakoff said, “there’s a lot more work to do to make the product even more robust.”
Original story link.
“The overriding goal of the company is to help students increase their educational opportunities in life,” said CEO Miro Kazakoff, who founded Testive with Tom Rose in 2011.
SAT Habit is based around testing software developed by Rose at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As students work through the program and answer questions in various sub categories — today’s SAT test has three sections, in math, reading, and writing, for a potential of 800 points each — algorithms help pinpoint their weaknesses and knowledge gaps. Students are then given personalized content to help them improve. They can also get tips and feedback from other users, watch videos that walk them through the solutions to questions they answered, set goals, and monitor their progress.
“They’re always training not only in the right category, but at the right ability level,” Kazakoff said.
Boston Latin student Daniel Qiu has seen results. After using the software, the high school junior saw an improvement of nearly 400 points on his SAT, with a score of 2110, over his PSAT. “(SAT Habit) was the only thing I used to prep — no other websites, classes or books,” Qiu said.
So far, more than 7,000 students have used the software, which has three tiers of use: free (allowing students to answer 10 questions a day), unlimited for $49 a month, or personalized tutoring for $499 a month. Testive also has a series of test projection products that been licensed by companies including Kaplan Test Prep.
The software can ultimately work for any standardized test, but Testive chose to initially home in on the SAT because it’s the “biggest, most visible test in the country,” Kazakoff said.
“This governs what sort of opportunities people have for education in their life,” he said. “(And) education governs how we provide access to wealth and opportunity.”
The company’s six employees aren’t just developing the product — they’re using it, too. The whole team is signed up to take the SAT in June, prepping with SAT Habit and tutoring each other in the interim. Kazakoff, who’s taken the SAT several years in a row — most recently scoring 780 in reading, 790 in writing, and under 700 in math — said he hopes to make it a company tradition.
“One of the challenges of education technology companies, is it’s really hard to be your own customer,” he said.
Although initially funded by the co-founders, Testive announced a $500,000 seed round in December from several angel investors, including Jean Hammond, Eileen Rudden, Dharmesh Shah and Bill Warner.
Looking ahead, Kazakoff said, “there’s a lot more work to do to make the product even more robust.”
Original story link.
