{"id":125421,"date":"2026-01-20T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125421\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T21:36:09","slug":"tampa-10th-grader-creates-ai-powered-sat-prep-app-to-help-students-who-can-afford-tutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125421\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa 10th grader creates AI-powered SAT prep app to help students who can afford tutors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; At just 16 years old, Eric MacDonald is already tackling real-world problems with technology.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The Tampa 10th grader taught himself how to code at age nine, starting with programming games on Roblox. That early interest quickly grew into coding competitions, small business projects and, eventually, one major goal: Helping other students succeed.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">WHAT&#8217;S RIGHT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/jesuit-high-school-student-launches-historical-preservation-project-honoring-732-veterans-tampa-cemetery\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jesuit High School student launches historical preservation project, honoring 732 veterans at Tampa cemetery<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wrtb-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">That idea became AceIt, an SAT prep app powered by artificial intelligence. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, the app learns how each student performs and adjusts accordingly.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Why you should care:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">If a user struggles with something like interpreting graphs, AceIt starts with simpler questions, then gradually increases difficulty as the student improves. The goal is mastery \u2014 not memorization.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/wrtb-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">MacDonald said the SAT often feels stacked against students who don\u2019t have access to expensive tutors that can cost thousands of dollars. That\u2019s why AceIt is completely free to download and use.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/people-come-purpose-casa-clothing-swap-gives-clothing-new-life-while-helping-local-organization\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;People come for a purpose&#8217;: CASA clothing swap gives clothing new life while helping local organization<\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Big picture view:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Early response has been strong. The app already has more than 400 users and multiple five-star reviews, and MacDonald expects those numbers to climb as SAT season ramps up.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">For him, this is just the beginning \u2014 both for the app and for the students he hopes it will help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: The information in this story was gathered through an interview with Eric MacDonald.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/series\/whats-right-with-tampa-bay\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What&#8217;s Right with Tampa Bay<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/education\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Education<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; At just 16 years old, Eric MacDonald is already tackling real-world problems with technology. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,115,405,135,137,136,3970],"class_list":["post-125421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-news","tag-series","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-whats-right-with-tampa-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}