A Commitment to Perfect SAT Prep

When I was in high school, I scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT.

Even though five years have past since I graduated from high school, my SAT score remains my hallmark—I’m often known as “the guy that got a perfect score on the SAT.”

While a 2400 SAT score is certainly impressive, what I have always taken more satisfaction in is how I earned it. I am not a genius. In high school, I was just a regular teenager who played sports, devoured fast food, hung out with friends, and surfed the web late into the night.

But the summer before senior year, I decided to take the SAT seriously. I was planning to apply to very competitive baccalaureate/MD joint degree programs in the fall, and the 1760 that I scored on my first practice SAT test wasn’t going to cut it. I researched everything I could about SAT prep, learned from older high-scoring students, and developed original tactics as I practiced on hundreds of SAT questions.

My hard work paid off. I achieved what less than .02% of high school students have: a perfect 2400 SAT score. My SAT score took my academic success to new heights. I gained admission into prestigious universities, secured over $230,000 in scholarships (my Coca-Cola scholarship being the most important!), and received national awards.

But I was just a regular kid who happened to have figured out the test. And I knew that one day, I would find a way to share all of the unique SAT-specific techniques I had learned with every “average” student around the world.

That day came right before my senior year of college. I decided that I was going to write an SAT prep book. But little did I realize that writing a book is much easier said than done. I sent out a book proposal to hundreds of literary agents. After an overwhelming number of rejections, one literary agent saw some promise in me and took me on as a client.

I took a few hours out of each day to write more and more of the manuscript. But as I completed more of the manuscript, I kept getting rejection letters from publishers who were not interested.

During winter break of my senior year of college, I had two options: continue writing my manuscript hoping a publisher would eventually bite or throw in the towel. But when life gives you Plan A or Plan B … make Plan C. I decided that I would start SAT prep classes, called 2400 Expert, in my hometown of Las Vegas.

I had no idea how to start a business. So I took a reduced course load in my final semester at USC and put on my entrepreneurial cap. I conceptualized an effective website, negotiated a great deal on a shared co-working space to lower initial overhead, wrote press releases, started a marketing campaign, trained instructors, and participated in several local television interviews. And this was all on top of the most important part—writing the SAT prep curriculum.

When McGraw-Hill, a publisher that had already rejected me, saw what I had put together in Las Vegas, they offered me a book deal. Ironically, what I had originally wanted didn’t become a reality until I decided to abandon it. Nevertheless, during the summer between college and medical school, I spent more than 500 hours in the same public library that I had originally studied for the SAT, completing a polished manuscript for McGraw-Hill. Today, SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps is an Amazon Bestseller and can be found in Barnes & Noble stores everywhere.

If there’s one thing to be said about starting a new company, writing a book, or even creating a new product line for an established company, it is this: There is no substitute for hard work. To have an idea is easy, but to make that idea a reality is not. Passion will make you less likely to quit, yield a better final product, and give you more satisfaction when you take that first leap of faith to reveal your idea to the world. Commit to something you are passionate about and make your dreams come to fruition.

Shaan Patel is a 2007 Coca-Cola Scholar and published author.