{"id":2048,"date":"2026-01-07T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:04:10","slug":"shsat-buddy-in-2025-what-we-built-what-we-learned-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/shsat-buddy-in-2025-what-we-built-what-we-learned-and-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"SHSAT Buddy in 2025: What We Built, What We Learned, and What\u2019s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>2025 was a great first step for SHSAT Buddy. The goal wasn\u2019t just to ship an app \u2014 it was to understand whether modern tooling, AI-generated content, and thoughtful UX could meaningfully help students preparing for one of the most high-stakes, under-resourced middle school exams in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s how the year unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We Built<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of the year, SHSAT Buddy had:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>4,000+ AI-generated questions<\/strong>, carefully tuned to mimic six years of real SHSAT exams<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>300+ students<\/strong> who took at least one quiz<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>200+ students<\/strong> who completed a full-length practice test<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On the acquisition side:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nearly <strong>50 TikTok posts<\/strong> became our strongest channel for reaching students directly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Facebook and Instagram drove the most parent interest<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Word of mouth<\/strong> ultimately converted the best users<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We Learned About Ed Tech<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Building in education surfaces hard truths quickly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Students want help \u2014 but they won\u2019t pay.<\/strong><br>Motivation is high, willingness to spend is not. Parents are the real customers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Parent retention is incredibly strong once they\u2019re onboarded.<\/strong><br>When parents understand progress and outcomes, retention exceeds <strong>80%<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Practice tests matter more than daily quizzes.<\/strong><br>Quizzes help build habits, but realistic practice tests deliver the most value.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Authenticity beats novelty.<\/strong><br>Nearly all feedback focused on making the experience <em>feel more like test day<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gamification isn\u2019t guaranteed.<\/strong><br>Leaderboards failed due to low density and lack of friend-to-friend usage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Native app distribution is painful.<\/strong><br>App Store friction made one thing clear: <strong>web-first is the path forward<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We\u2019re Building Next<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on everything we learned, our focus moving forward is clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rebuild the <strong>parent onboarding flow<\/strong> to simplify test management and progress tracking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focus on <strong>desktop-first experiences<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Expand question types as the SHSAT continues to evolve<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase overall question difficulty<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep learning directly from parents and students \u2014 continuously<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Closing Thoughts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Building SHSAT Buddy in 2025 was equal parts energizing and humbling. Education products don\u2019t succeed because they\u2019re clever \u2014 they succeed because they earn trust, reflect reality, and respect the stakes students and families face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m proud of what we built, grateful for everyone who used it, and excited to keep building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Onward \ud83d\ude80<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025 was a great first step for SHSAT Buddy. The goal wasn\u2019t just to ship an app \u2014 it was to understand whether modern tooling, AI-generated content, and thoughtful UX could meaningfully help students preparing for one of the most high-stakes, under-resourced middle school exams in the country. Here\u2019s how the year unfolded. What We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shsat-buddy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAIx-x2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2049,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions\/2049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/builder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}