The 2018 Innovation Fund, our annual crowdfunding competition, has officially launched! You can find all of the Innovation Fund participants here. Read on for the story of Gregory, an AI-based SAT/ ACT/ GRE/ GMAT software to help you reach your dream score, created by 2017 Fellow Yuan Liu.
Where did this begin?
It usually doesn’t take long before people figure out I am not Einstein, so when my friends hear about my test scores, they always wonder what my secrets were.
To be honest, it was just tons of practice and learning from mistakes. It may sound simple, but it was an incredibly frustrating process. From SAT to GRE, I did thousands of practice questions. Many times I asked myself, “why do you keep getting this wrong?” After a while, I started to see patterns and gradually synthesized them into techniques and my own personal tips.
I was always happy to share my experience and tips with my friends when it comes to studying for these tests because I wanted them to avoid my frustrations. Later on, I became a tutor. As fulfilling as the experience was, I noticed that a lot of people didn’t have the time and money for tutors or lessons. So I started trying to find easier and more flexible ways to help more people. This is where it all began.
What is the story behind the logo and the name Gregory?
I started by experimenting with sharing free GRE resources and study tips. One thing I learned from my experience as a tutor, however, is that each student has their own needs and challenges. A good tutor sees through the students’ problems and knows exactly how to enable them to make the progress and remove their roadblocks. So eventually, this idea evolved into a more intelligent software that can do exactly that. Like the name Gregory, it all started from GRE.
We want it to be just like a Care Bear that’s always there for you when you battle the challenges studying for the tests. Isn’t that cute?
How does it work？
We created premium content for students, including hundreds of lessons and thousands of practice questions. Based on students’ patterns interacting with our content, it will look deep into their gaps and identify the roadblocks they are not seeing by themselves. Gregory can help them remove these roadblocks by providing actionable tips and creating an overall strategy to make noticeable progress.
How far are you now?
We will be ready to release the full product for GRE early in the summer and it will be soon available for other tests such as SAT and GMAT. As we are still refining the algorithm, we know some people need more immediate help for their upcoming tests. We are ready to release our GRE math practice set. It has ~600 practice questions carefully selected, with video lessons coming and office hours available on weekends for any test-related questions. Helping students unlock a perfect math score at a very low price. It will be available soon. Stay tuned!
I’m not taking these tests (anymore), why should I care?
I’ve always believed in the role of education in people’s lives. Part of the goal of this project is to develop an accessible tool for students who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on these tests to get the education they dream about. We hope to partner with local schools and deliver this to underserved students in the community once the product is ready. By enabling us, you are making a difference to many people’s lives by helping them access the education they need to unlock their dreams. So check our our campaign here!