Press & media
Covering the SHSAT?
Here's everything in one place.
Fast facts, story angles, screenshots, and founder background for SHSAT Prep: Practice Tests — an iPhone, iPad and Android app built by a Stuyvesant alum for the year the SHSAT becomes computer-adaptive. Everything on this page may be quoted; every image may be republished with editorial coverage.
Covering our daily puzzle game instead? Jump to Brain Games by Clever Branch.
The story in one paragraph
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
| App | SHSAT Prep: Practice Tests — on the App Store and on Google Play |
| Developer | Simple Tree LLC, an independent family-run studio |
| Platform | iPhone, iPad and Android (phones and tablets) |
| Released | August 21, 2026 on the App Store; September 18, 2026 on Google Play |
| Price | Free download with a permanent free tier. One single payment — no subscription, nothing to cancel — unlocks the full question bank, all 87 lessons, and the full-length practice tests for a year. |
| Questions | 1,386 for the Grade 8 test (1,504 counting Grade 9 material), each reviewed and signed off by a person, each with a worked step-by-step explanation |
| The adaptive test | A full-length Adaptive Practice Test adjusts question difficulty from the student's answers, the way the fall 2026 exam does, and reports the difficulty level reached in each section |
| Data collected | None. No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking — the app contains no networking code of our own. (On Android, Google's mandatory Play Billing library brings its own network permissions; the privacy policy spells that out.) |
| Free guides | The studio also publishes free plain-English SHSAT guides: the adaptive format explained, cutoff scores, a score calculator, and dates & registration |
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
These images may be republished with editorial coverage of the app or the SHSAT; credit "Simple Tree" is appreciated. Right-click or long-press to save, or contact us for other sizes and formats.
Brain Games by Clever Branch
Simple Tree's newest app is a daily puzzle game for adults. Every day there are three short puzzles, the same for everyone: a memory game, a reasoning puzzle with a worked explanation, and a word game. Players finish in a few minutes and can share how they did as a grid of squares that gives no answers away. It has no ads and no account, and it sells an optional subscription with the billed price shown first, no countdown timers and no struck-through prices.
Fast facts
| App | Brain Games by Clever Branch — product page, on the App Store and on Google Play |
| Developer | Simple Tree LLC, an independent studio in New York |
| Platform | iPhone and iPad (iOS 18 or later), Android 8 or later (phones, tablets and foldables) |
| Released | October 22, 2026 on Google Play; October 26, 2026 on the App Store |
| Price | Free download. Today's 3 is free every day. Brain Games Premium opens all 14 games on any day, unlimited replays, the archive of the last 60 days and per-game scores: $39.99 a year with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers, or $9.99 a month. On iPhone and iPad it includes Family Sharing. |
| Games | 14, across memory, speed, words, logic and numbers, and spatial puzzles. Each shows its rules before the first play. |
| Privacy | No accounts, no ads, no tracking. Progress stays on the device and in the player's own iCloud or Google backup, never sent to us. The App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected, and the Google Play Data safety section declares no collection or sharing. |
| Disclaimer | Brain Games by Clever Branch is a puzzle game for entertainment. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. |
Story angles
A subscription you can see the bottom of
The free daily three never go away, the paywall leads with the price as billed, and new subscribers get a reminder on day 4 of a 7-day trial. There are no countdowns, no struck-through "was" prices and no pressure screens. In 2024 the FTC reviewed hundreds of subscription apps and sites and found most used at least one dark pattern; the app is a small, concrete attempt at the opposite.
The same three puzzles for everyone
Like the daily word games that took over group chats, everyone gets the same Today's 3, numbered from the first day. The share card shows a filled square for each right answer and an outline for each miss, so people can compare without spoiling anything.
A puzzle game with nothing to skip
Most free puzzle apps pay for themselves with ads between levels. This one carries none, needs no sign-up and works offline, and it was built to be comfortable to play: relaxed timing for every timed game, answers that never rely on colour alone, and text up to the largest accessibility sizes.
Screenshots
These images may be republished with editorial coverage of the app; credit "Simple Tree" is appreciated.
About Simple Tree
Simple Tree LLC is an independent studio in New York making small, careful apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, one idea at a time. Besides the SHSAT app it makes SSAT Prep and TACHS Prep for other high school entrance tests, CouchPortal for Minecraft on console, PathBloom, a walking game that turns everyday walks into discovery, and Brain Games by Clever Branch, a daily puzzle game. No app Simple Tree ships has accounts you didn't ask for or data quietly leaving your phone.