As a professional SAT tutor, I’m always looking for ways to make my students’ SAT process go more smoothly, and Find My SAT is the best new tool I’ve seen in a long time. As soon as it came across my desk, I wanted to know more about who made this amazing tool and why. How could I recommend it to my students if I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t impinge on their privacy? So, I reached out to the developer with some pointed questions, and – much to my surprise – he’s a good-natured high school student just like the ones I work with every day.
Why is Find My SAT a big deal?
The SAT is a rite-of-passage that about 2 million high school students participate in each year. Not only do these teens need to study the Pythagorean Theorem and all the ways to use a semicolon, they also have to navigate the red tape of getting signed up to take the test. That process can be more involved than they expect. Once they decide which date (or dates) they want to take the test, they have to select a location.
To get this answer, they’ll need to navigate through about four pages of questions from the CollegeBoard. Why so many questions?It’s because the College Board will sell the answers to colleges and scholarships under their “Student Search” program. If a student wants to check the locations again a week later, they’ll have to navigate all those questions once again.
My students have exceptionally busy lives, and finding the SAT closest to them just isn’t something they should be spending this much time doing. Not only that, but ever since COVID, finding a seat for the SAT has gotten more difficult in many locations. Anything that could make this process easier would be very helpful.
Meet Vedant
When Vedant Mahawar took the SAT just a year ago, he came to the same conclusion. Signing up for the test is just way too time-consuming! When I asked him why and how he developed Find My SAT, this is what he said:
My name is Vedant Mahawar. I’m a 17-year-old high school junior from Seattle who enjoys building things, volunteering for food insecurity, playing ultimate frisbee, and rock climbing.
When I took the SAT as a high school junior, I found it incredibly difficult to find an open SAT testing center near me. I had to check the College Board website every day for months before finding an open spot. Soon, I learned that this was a common problem. As more and more colleges get rid of test-optional post-COVID, the demand for testing seats is outpacing the number of available seats. Since over two million high schoolers take the SAT every year, this is a serious problem.
This isn’t equitable at all. Flying out or booking a hotel at a testing center the night before is expensive. And it’s a luxury most can’t afford. The SAT is supposed to be a test that levels the playing field, but a lack of testing seats does the opposite.
As a result, I put my software development skills to work and created Find My SAT. All you do is enter your email, zip code, and test date at findmysat.org, and then you will get an instant email notification the second a new SAT center opens up in your area. That way you can focus on studying for the test, not finding a testing seat.
This is why I love my job! I get to work with amazing teens like Vedant, the creator of Find My SAT, every day. I can also unabashedly recommend Vedant’s Find My SAT tool to my students and all SAT takers.
Handy Links:
Vedant’s Amazing Website: https://findmysat.org/
Contact Vedant: contact@findmysat.org
Contact Heather: heather@worldclasstutoring.com
Free Practice For the SAT: https://worldclasstutoring.com/sat-and-act-practice/
Register for the SAT: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/dates-deadlinesf
CollegeBoard’s Statement about “Student Search” https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/help-center/what-student-search-service
