Now, an app to help you crack entrance examinations

Students preparing for engineering and medical entrance exams now have an alternative to spending lakhs on coaching at premier institutes.

HashLearn Now, an app developed by education entrepreneur Jayadev Gopalakrishnan and technologist Gokul Janga, connects students to tutors from IITs and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) at the click of a button.

A student hast to take a screen shot of a problem and click on the app’s ‘Connect Tutor’ button.

“We immediately match the student with a tutor and a live, one-on-one session begins.

“You can get into a tutoring session at any time as our panellists are available round-the-clock,” Gopalakrishnan told BusinessLine.

Nearly 80 per cent of the coaching market in India is unorganised, with urban centres having the lion’s share. “Our vision is, every student, even from a small town or village, who does not have access to coaching, should be able to have their questions answered,” says Gopalakrishnan.

The tutors are a mix of people who have cracked IIT and BITS exams and are current or former IITians (working part time), besides full-time tutors.

The app offers tuitions in four subjects — physics, chemistry, math and biology — covering school examinations of all boards as well as State and national entrance tests.

Gopalakrishnan, for now, is not willing to share the number of tutors on his panel, but says they are enough to address the demand.

The tutors are not masters in a certain subject, but specialise in specific areas such as integral calculus in maths. They are compensated on a per-session basis.

Students from class eight and above can use the app, which offers different subscription packages for combinations such as physics, chemistry and maths (PCM) or physics, chemistry and biology (PCB).

HashLearn charges a flat subscription fee of ₹333 per month for a one-year plan with unlimited sessions. The charges go up to ₹499 for a NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) package for PCB.

The app also contains free practice questions and students can try out the first few sessions for free. HashLearn is backed by Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and Google India MD Rajan Anandan, among others.

Despite interest shown by students in the app, Gopalakrishnan is not ready to talk about break-even or profitability.

“That is not at the top of my mind. We want to reach out to as many students as possible.”