SAT Prep Mastery
Lindsay Arvani Da Costa
Co-Creator & Student Product Lead
Lindsay became involved while preparing for the SAT during her junior year of high school. She originally approached her dad with the idea of building something better than the expensive courses and generic free question banks she was finding. Her perspective as an actual SAT student helped shape the platform from a tool for one student into a product for every student.
Her Role
Lindsay is not the software developer. Her dad handled the technical implementation. Lindsay's contribution is student and academic experience — the perspective of someone actually preparing for the SAT.
She tests and uses the product herself. She identifies what works from a student's point of view and what does not, and she pushes for changes that make the platform genuinely useful rather than just technically impressive.
What Lindsay Has Helped Shape
Specific examples of her influence on the platform.
AI SAT Tutor
Asked whether AI could fill the role of an expensive private tutor and give students help the moment they get stuck.
Practice Difficulty
Pushed for much harder practice questions that expose real weaknesses instead of making students feel prepared.
Explanation Depth
Wanted explanations to cover why the correct answer is correct, why each wrong answer is wrong, how to solve it, and what SAT traps to recognize.
Study-Plan Structure
Felt that questions and tools alone were not enough. Pushed for a structured path so students always know what to work on next.
Desmos Integration
Pointed out how important Desmos had become for the Digital SAT and wanted it available directly in the Math experience.
Graphics & Visual Questions
Pushed for more graph-based and visual Math questions because students encounter them on the actual Digital SAT.
Student-Friendly UI
Identified layouts and workflows that made sense technically but were confusing from a student's perspective.
Homepage Sample Question & Mobile App
Wanted students to try the product rather than just read marketing claims. Now pushing for a mobile app for quicker access from a phone.
Why the Student Perspective Matters
A platform built only by developers can work technically but miss what students actually need. Lindsay catches the gaps that are invisible from the code side but obvious from the student side — a layout that is technically correct but confusing, an explanation that is accurate but too short, or a question set that is labeled “hard” but does not actually challenge students.
Her strength is genuine first-hand experience. She is not an SAT expert, an admissions expert, a professional tutor, or an educator. She is a student who went through the process herself and wanted something better — for herself and for every other student.
What She Is Working on Now
Lindsay currently uses SAT Prep Mastery herself. She pushed for development of the mobile app because the full website is less convenient when a student wants quick SAT help from a phone. The app is the current stage of the father-daughter project.
She continues to test features, flag usability issues, and push for a student experience that matches what she would want as a user.