Our Story
Built for One Student.
Created for Every Student.
What started as a way to help one student prepare for the SAT has grown into a platform used by students across the country.
How It Started
SAT Prep Mastery began around January of Lindsay's junior year. She was preparing for the SAT and became frustrated with the available options. Comprehensive courses were expensive. Private tutors were expensive. Affordable tutoring was hard to find, and free resources were often generic question banks with little explanation. Many of the questions did not feel challenging enough, and early AI tutoring tools still felt limited compared with having someone actually teach the material.
Meanwhile, her dad — already interested in AI and education — had built other technology projects. She approached him with an idea: what if they built something to actually help her prepare?
At first, it was simply a tool for one student. But as she used it and shared it with friends, it became clear that other students could benefit too. What began as a personal solution slowly evolved into SAT Prep Mastery — a platform built for every student.
Most of the SAT prep I found either cost a lot or just threw practice questions at you. What was missing was someone explaining why you got something wrong and what to do next. The SAT is supposed to show what you know, not what your family can afford.
Lindsay Arvani Da Costa
Co-Creator & Student Product Lead
How One Student Shaped the Product
Real influence, not vague claims.
Lindsay did not program the platform — her dad handled the technical implementation. But she shaped the academic and student experience in specific, meaningful ways.
Deeper Explanations
She wanted students to understand why the correct answer is correct, why each wrong answer is wrong, how to solve it, and what SAT traps to recognize next time.
Harder Practice
Lindsay pushed for much harder practice — questions that exposed real weaknesses instead of making students feel prepared.
AI SAT Tutor
Private tutoring was expensive. She asked whether AI could fill that role and give students help the moment they got stuck.
Structured Study Plan
Students needed to know "What should I work on next?" She pushed for a structured path instead of leaving students to figure it out.
Desmos Calculator
Lindsay pointed out how important Desmos had become for the Digital SAT and wanted it available directly inside the Math experience.
Graphics & Visuals
Early Math questions lacked visual, graph-based material. Lindsay pushed for graphs because students encounter them on the actual Digital SAT.
Student-Friendly UI
Lindsay regularly identified layouts and workflows that made sense technically but were confusing from a student's perspective.
Mobile App
She pushed for a mobile app because the full website is less convenient when a student wants quick SAT help from a phone.
A Father-Daughter Project
Two Perspectives, One Product
Her dad handled the technical side. Lindsay kept asking the question that mattered most: Would this actually help a student?
Lindsay Arvani Da Costa
Co-Creator & Student Product Lead
- Student experience and academic feedback
- Feature ideas from a first-hand student perspective
- Practice difficulty and explanation depth
- Testing and usability feedback
- Study-plan structure and Desmos integration
- Current mobile-app direction
Celio Costa
Co-Creator, Developer & Product Builder
- Software development and technical architecture
- AI implementation and integration
- Infrastructure and databases
- Turning Lindsay's ideas into functioning features
- Platform performance and reliability
I wanted us to build what I wished every student had: challenging practice, explanations that actually make sense, help when you're stuck, and a real plan for improving. And I wanted students to be able to use it for free.
Lindsay Arvani Da Costa
Co-Creator & Student Product Lead
Our Mission
Why Access Matters
Serious SAT preparation should not depend on what a family can afford. The project began partly because complete SAT preparation and private tutoring were financially out of reach for many families. Lindsay experienced that frustration first-hand, and it shaped every decision about what the platform should offer and who it should serve.
The goal was never to build another paywalled question bank. The goal was to give every motivated student the kind of structured, challenging, well-explained preparation that used to be available only to families who could afford expensive courses or hourly tutors.
What's Next
From Website to Mobile
Lindsay uses SAT Prep Mastery herself. She wanted a faster, simpler way to access SAT help from her phone — the full website is less convenient when a student just wants quick help between classes or on the go. That led to development of the SAT Prep Mastery mobile app.
The next chapter is now being built: SAT Prep Mastery for mobile.