How this MIT grad went from high-priced tutor to startup founder

by Justine Hofherr
March 30, 2017

Just a few years ago, Tom Rose was a SAT tutor charging $500 per session.

The MIT grad quickly realized only about 20 percent of what he was doing with the students was actually personalized, so he set out to create a better method. 

“I initially got interested in test prep because I was a high-priced tutor and it felt to me like a lot of what I was doing was highly repetitive and could be handled by a smart machine,” Rose (pictured right) said. “So the challenge was to see if we could build a machine to offload human time but still keep a human tutor in the loop. And we did that.”

Rose founded Cambridge-based startup Testive with MIT classmate Miro Kazakoff in 2011.

The test prep platform uses a combination of machine learning and human input, providing students with advanced SAT and ACT learning software paired with the motivational support of private coaches, all of whom are in the top 1 percent of scoring coaches.

Students can access practice tests and content drills online that provide instant feedback and short video explanations of concepts and solutions for incorrect answers. But what really sets Testive apart from other test prep platforms is its proprietary algorithm that adapts to a student’s skill level, reducing practice time — the main killer of motivation.

“When a student comes to Testive, the first thing we do is have them take a calibration test with SAT- or ACT-like questions,” Rose said. “All of the questions are smart questions that not only represent the test to the student, but also teach us, based on how they answer the question, about their abilities.”

Rose continued: "Then, we move students automatically through content designed to help them improve as fast as possible. It’s neither too hard, which frustrates people, nor too easy, which makes people bored. It’s designed to keep people in the zone all of the time.”

And it appears to be working.

According to the company’s published results, Testive students improve an average of 150 points on the current 2,400-point SAT. This is far higher than the average 30-point improvement that studies by the National Association of College Admission Counseling have reported.

More than 150,000 students have used Testive to date, and Rose anticipates a future where the startup’s software is used for more than just test prep.

“What we do is dramatically improve learning speed, but that doesn’t necessarily have to do with test prep,” Rose said. “We’re in test prep now because it’s a great starting market, but eventually we would like to broaden our tech to apply to a more diverse set of learning. We’re not sure specifically, but places it could be applicable are weight loss, language learning and sales training.”

 

Photos via social media

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