Our Approach
SAT Mastery OS isn't just another practice app. It's built on decades of research in learning science and educational measurement.
The core insight
Most test prep treats all students the same. But every student has a unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. Generic practice wastes time on skills you've already mastered while neglecting the ones that would actually improve your score.
Our adaptive system models YOUR specific abilities across 120 SAT skills. Every question, every recommendation, every minute of practice is personalized to maximize YOUR improvement.
The science behind our system
Item Response Theory (IRT)
IRT is the gold standard for educational measurement, used by the College Board itself. We use IRT to precisely estimate your ability on each skill and select questions at exactly the right difficulty level.
Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT)
BKT tracks the probability that you've mastered each skill based on your response history. It accounts for learning, forgetting, guessing, and slip errors.
Spaced Repetition
Skills you've learned need periodic review to stick. Our system automatically schedules review at optimal intervals based on forgetting curves.
Interleaved Practice
Rather than drilling one skill at a time, we mix different skill types within sessions. Research shows this improves long-term retention and transfer.
Desirable Difficulties
Learning that feels easy often doesn't stick. We deliberately introduce productive struggle by varying question formats and adding time pressure.
Metacognitive Training
We ask you to predict your confidence before seeing if you're correct. This calibrates your self-awareness and helps identify blind spots.
How it all works together
1. Assessment: When you start, our adaptive diagnostic uses IRT to efficiently estimate your ability across all domains with minimal questions.
2. Modeling: BKT creates a probabilistic model of your mastery for each of 120 skills, including uncertainty estimates.
3. Planning: Our optimization engine considers your target score, test date, and time budget to create an optimal study plan.
4. Selection: Each practice session selects questions using IRT targeting, interleaving, and spaced repetition principles.
5. Adaptation: After every response, your skill model updates in real-time. The system continuously refines its understanding of your abilities.
6. Verification: Periodic PROVE sessions test your skills under real conditions, validating improvement and identifying remaining gaps.
Research foundations
Adaptive Learning Systems
Corbett & Anderson (1995). Knowledge tracing: Modeling the acquisition of procedural knowledge. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction.
Item Response Theory
Embretson & Reise (2000). Item Response Theory for Psychologists. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Spacing Effect
Cepeda et al. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin.
Interleaved Practice
Rohrer & Taylor (2007). The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning. Instructional Science.
Desirable Difficulties
Bjork & Bjork (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way. Psychology and the Real World.
Experience the difference
Try our diagnostic assessment and see how personalized SAT prep should feel. No more wasted practice.
Start free trial