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Shaan Patel is is the perfect SAT score founder of test prep company 2400 Expert, a #1 bestselling SAT prep author, and an MD/MBA student at Yale and USC. He grew up his my parent’s budget motel, attended urban public schools in the worst school district in the nation with a 40% dropout rate, and was clueless about standardized tests. But through focused preparation, he was able to raise his SAT score from average to perfect — which changed his life! He was admitted into prestigious universities, won a quarter million dollars in scholarships, and even got to meet the President! In addition, he was a National Merit Scholar, a Coca-Cola Scholar, a Toyota Scholar, and on the USA Today All-USA High School Academic Team.

Read our interview with Shaan below!

Reema: Why did you decide to open up this business?
Shaan Patel: I never planned to start an SAT prep company. In college, I wanted to write an SAT prep book to help students prepare for the SAT the way that I did. Unfortunately, my book proposal was rejected by 106 literary agents and publishers who said the SAT prep market was too competitive. But instead of giving up, I decided to use the material I had written to launch a test prep course. I used my last $900 of college scholarships to launch a website for 2400 Expert to advertise the only prep course by a student who got a perfect score in high school. It was originally supposed to be a one-time summer course I taught to help pay for upcoming $80,000/year med school education. While I envisioned my business to be an overnight success, the lack of an immediate response served as a sobering entrepreneurial lesson. But there was a silver lining: the 376-point average score improvement in the pilot class confirmed my “easy-to-read” text actually resonated quite well with students. Demand for future courses was high. So I hired qualified instructors and have continued to manage the company remotely from med school and business school. So all of the growth at 2400 Expert has been done during my spare time when I’m not studying for medical licensing board exams or on 36-hour surgical rotation shifts at the hospital. When McGraw-Hill saw what I was building, they offered me a book deal after all. Ironically, what I had originally wanted didn’t happen until I proved my expertise elsewhere.

What are your long term goals for 2400 Expert?
I want 2400 Expert to be one of the nation’s largest test preparation providers. We currently have online courses that students from all over the country (and world) enroll in. In 2016, we are also expanding in-person courses to 20 cities across the United States including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

What aspects make 2400 expert unique and how do you guarantee a 330 point increase?
2400 Expert has been successful for three primary reasons. First, it is the only company that teaches students 100 powerful test-taking strategies developed by a student who went from an average SAT score to a perfect one. Second, we offer more hours of preparation than our competitors — 60 hours in 6 weeks rather than the usual 18 hours. Third, we hire the best instructors who have all scored in 99th percentile on the SAT themselves, have previous teaching experience, and have been trained by me to teach my material.

What is a key factor that has lead to your success?
I personally have a tremendous amount of self-control. When I focus on a goal, I am able to avoid all other distractions. For example, when I wanted to get a high SATscore in high school, I spent hundreds of hours studying in the library. I often skipped out on more fun social activities in order to study. I ended up raising my average SAT score to a perfect one (only .02% of students get a perfect SAT score). I believe my self-control is responsible for all of my successes over the years.

What is one thing you have learned from running your own business at such a young age?
There is no such thing as an overnight success. There have been so many times that I have been rejected. But if you deal with the rejection, work hard to build value, and have patience, you will succeed.

What are your plans for the future? Do you hope to continue in this or move to a different path?
In the ideal world, I would like to choose a flexible specialty that allows me to practice as a physician 2-3 times a week and work on my business the rest of the time.

If you didn’t start 2400 expert, what do you think you would have been doing? Did you plan to go into the business field?
I am certain I would be starting another business. I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. In elementary school, I sold Pokemon cards. In middle school, I sold burned music CDs. In high school, I made thousands off internet referrals. In college, I made tens of thousands buying and selling used iPhones on eBay. While school has always been important to me, it’s never been enough – I’ve always needed a side gig. Now in med school and business school, I found my real business- 2400 Expert.

Writer’s Note: Have a burning SAT question for Shaan or want to learn more? You can e-mail him at shaan@2400expert.com!