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In fall 2026 the SHSAT — the single test that decides admission to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, and five other NYC specialized high schools — becomes computer-adaptive for the first time, choosing each question from how the student answered the last one. Nearly every prep book on the market still rehearses a paper exam that no longer exists. SHSAT Prep: Practice Tests, released August 21, 2026 by the independent studio Simple Tree, was built for the new format by a Stuyvesant alum who took the test himself as an eighth grader: it starts with a 30-minute diagnostic, builds a day-by-day plan to the student's test date, and includes a full-length adaptive practice test that serves questions the way the real exam now does. It collects no data at all — no accounts, no ads, no analytics — and its full unlock is a single payment that costs less than one hour with a NYC tutor.

Fast facts

Three story angles

The test changed; the prep shelf didn't

The SHSAT moved on-screen in 2025 and becomes computer-adaptive in fall 2026 — forward-only navigation, difficulty that responds to each answer, no going back to check work. Families prepping from paper books are rehearsing a different exam. The app's practice has been digital and timed from day one, and its full-length tests follow the real test player's navigation rules, down to the highlighter and answer-eliminator tools.

Prep costs are part of the equity story

SHSAT tutoring in NYC commonly runs $100–300 an hour, and multi-week courses run into the thousands — a real factor in who shows up prepared on test day. The app's position: the software part of prep should cost less than one hour of tutoring, once, with a free tier that never expires and progress that is never locked away.

A Stuyvesant alum, building for his own kids

Founder Christopher Lara (Stuyvesant class of 2000) took the SHSAT as a New York eighth grader and credits those four years with changing the direction of his life. His sons were the app's first and toughest beta testers, working through the question bank all summer. It is a one-family operation: the questions are written and human-reviewed in-house, and the app was built for thirteen-year-olds on purpose — which is why it collects nothing.

About the founder

Simple Tree was founded by Christopher Lara, Stuyvesant High School class of 2000 — classmates will remember him as Christopher Pabon; when he married, he and his wife chose a new shared surname together — his mother's maiden name, Lara, which no one else was left to carry on (LinkedIn). He took the SHSAT as an eighth grader in New York City, and what he remembers about preparing is how blunt the tools were — a thick book, an answer key, and no idea where he actually stood until test day. SHSAT Prep is the tool he wishes he'd had: a diagnostic that maps skills instead of handing back a single number, and a plan that spends every session where the points actually are.

Christopher is available for interviews by phone, video, or email, and can speak to the SHSAT's shift to an adaptive format and what it changes for families, how the app's questions are written and human-reviewed, and what it means to build software for young teenagers that collects no data at all.

Screenshots

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About Simple Tree

Simple Tree LLC is an independent studio making small, careful iOS apps — one idea at a time, each built for the founder's own family first. Its other app, PathBloom, is a voxel exploration game that turns everyday walks into real-world discovery. No app Simple Tree ships has accounts you didn't ask for or data quietly leaving your phone.

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