The Beginning

In the beginning there was pain

My wife was struggling. She was going through the toughest part of her PhD program. On top of difficult classes and demanding research deadlines she had to prepare for an 8 hour comprehensive exam and a 50 page research paper. To put the cherry on top, she was still recovering from a heart surgery she had on the first day of that semester. She was stressed out of her mind. I desparately wanted to help her.

I've been making apps and writing software for half a decade now (Yeah I know, I know, I'm still a noob). Since I have no nunchuk skills or bow hunting skills, leveraging my sweet computer hacking skills was where I thought I could help my wife the most.

So I got to work.

AI tools had just taken a huge leap forward. I saw that I could use some of them to make her life way easier. I made a simple prototype. She could upload the pdf slides her teachers had distributed and it would create multiple choice questions for her. Those questions had unique and interesting distractors. They were actually challenging to answer correctly. She really had to know the material. She told me, "OMG! This is so awesome! You're the best! I love you so much!" Just kidding. She didn't say that.

She said, "What distinguished the tool from other study tools was its adeptness in generating intelligent alternative answer solutions. This compelled a deeper analytical scrutiny of alternative answer solutions, challenging my ability to recall the study materials." Sounds like something a PhD student would say. 🙄

The results she was getting were great. I was really pleased. I thought back to my years of high school and college and the countless hours I spent creating study materials. The tool I had made would have been so useful. I decided to take it from a simple prototype to a legit product.

I added a bunch more features.

• Automatically generated flashcards
• Spaced repetition for flashcards
• Test mode and casual study mode for questions
• Sharing study sets with friends
• Support for many file types (.pdf, .docx, .pptx)
• Generating items from pasted text
• Flexible subscription plans along with a free tier

Study Sherpa was born.

Whether you are in high school studying for a history test, in college preparing for finals or in med school stressing over board exams, Study Sherpa will save you many hours. You can get back to doing more important things, like binge watching the umpteenth season of some show about the Kardashians.

I hope you like it.

Also whats up with that name? A sherpa is someone who guides travelers up to the top of Mount Everest. Study Sherpa will help you get to the top of your educational Everest, or your educational mole hill. I don't judge.