The hidden price of taking the SAT

Preparing for the SAT can already be stressful. For an international student, it is only one part of a much larger process: understanding U.S. universities, financial aid, application requirements, essays, deadlines, scholarships, and standardized testing.

In Mongolia, the problem often begins even earlier.

A student might know that the SAT matters, but not know what score they should aim for.

They might have taken a practice test, but not know what their weaknesses are.

They might know they need to improve their math score, but not know which specific concepts are holding them back.

They might spend months studying without ever understanding whether their preparation is actually working.

And when they look for help, the easiest option can appear to be paying for a course.

There is nothing inherently wrong with paid education. Good teachers and good preparation programs deserve to be compensated.

But we began asking ourselves a different question:

What happens to the student who simply cannot afford it?

If a student has to spend millions of tugriks just to gain access to information that is fundamentally available online, then financial circumstances are quietly becoming an admissions advantage.

We don't think that should be the case.

Information is free. So why is access so expensive?

Bytecode was founded in the summer of 2023 with a very simple idea.

We wanted to make learning to code more accessible in Mongolia.

At the time, we saw students hesitate to learn programming because many of the available learning opportunities came with a price tag. Yet the internet already contained an enormous amount of high-quality educational information that was freely available.

We kept asking ourselves:

If the information is already available on the internet, why should access to learning it depend on whether someone can afford a course?

So Bytecode began as an open-source coding education initiative.

The goal was never simply to build another educational website. It was to make knowledge easier to access.

That same philosophy eventually brought us to standardized testing.

We realized that the problem we had seen in coding existed in another form in university preparation.

There were Mongolian students who wanted to study abroad, but many of them had no reliable place to begin preparing for the SAT.

There was no single platform they could trust.

There was no obvious starting point.

There was no system telling them, clearly, this is where you are, this is where you need to go, and this is what you should work on next.

So we decided to build one.

Meet Mori Prep

Mori means horse in Mongolian.

We chose the name because horses are intelligent, capable, and fast. We want Mori Prep users to become smarter and faster learners as they prepare for the opportunities ahead of them.

Mori Prep is our attempt to build the SAT preparation infrastructure we wish more Mongolian students had access to.

The platform currently provides a Digital SAT question bank using official College Board questions, alongside resources for SAT Math, Reading and Writing, vocabulary, SAT preparation, and the broader college application process.

We are also continuing to build new features, including full-length practice tests, more extensive Math resources, and AI-powered explanations.

But the technology itself isn't the most important part.

The important part is that a student's ability to use Mori Prep should not depend on their family's income.

Whether you are a student in Ulaanbaatar or studying in the countryside, if you have a computer and an internet connection, you can use the same platform.

The gap between students should not be determined by geography.

It shouldn't be determined by the school they attend.

And it shouldn't be determined by how many millions of tugriks their family can spend on preparation.

You don't need to be rich to study abroad

There is a perception that studying abroad, especially in the United States, is something reserved for wealthy families.

And honestly, we understand why.

The application process can look expensive and complicated from the outside.

But there is another side of the story that is much less visible.

Many universities provide substantial financial aid to international students, and some Mongolian students are able to attend U.S. universities with scholarships and financial aid covering most or even all of their costs.

For a student who has never encountered that possibility before, simply learning that these opportunities exist can change the trajectory of their life.

That is why we believe information itself can be a form of opportunity.

A student cannot apply for a scholarship they do not know exists.

They cannot prepare for the SAT if they do not know where to start.

They cannot aim for a score if nobody has explained what they should be aiming for.

And they cannot identify their weaknesses if they have no way to measure them.

The first step is access.

Filling the gap with knowledge, not money

Imagine two students.

One can afford millions of tugriks for private SAT preparation. They have teachers, books, practice materials, and someone who can tell them exactly what to study.

The other student cannot afford any of that.

The first student can fill the information gap with money.

The second student shouldn't have to accept that the gap is permanent.

Mori Prep is our attempt to fill that gap with an open educational platform instead.

We don't want to put advertisements between students and their education.

We don't want to put a subscription fee between a student and a practice question.

We don't want a student's financial situation to determine how much of the platform they can access.

That is why Mori Prep is non-profit.

And we intend to keep it that way.

We are still at the beginning

Mori Prep officially launched at the beginning of August 2026.

Since then, around 700 students have already joined the platform, and students have collectively spent roughly 60 hours using its resources to prepare and practice.

For us, those numbers are not just statistics.

Every hour represents someone choosing to learn.

Every practice question represents someone trying to get a little closer to their goal.

And every student who uses Mori Prep without paying for an expensive preparation course is another example of what open education can make possible.

We are still building.

The question bank is growing. More practice tests are being integrated. More explanations and preparation resources are being added. The platform itself is evolving alongside the students using it.

But the principle will remain the same.

A student's potential should not have a price tag

We don't know where every Mori Prep student will end up.

Maybe some will attend universities in the United States.

Maybe some will study somewhere else.

Maybe some will decide that the SAT is not the path they want to take at all.

That's okay.

Our goal isn't to decide what a student should become.

Our goal is to make sure that if a student does decide to pursue an opportunity, lack of money doesn't stop them before they even get the chance to try.

Mongolia has students with extraordinary potential.

Some are already surrounded by opportunities.

Others are still searching for them.

We believe the internet can help make that difference smaller.

Bytecode started with coding because we believed knowledge shouldn't be locked behind a price tag when the knowledge itself is already available to everyone.

Mori Prep is the next expression of that belief.

We are building a bridge across the information gap.

Not with money.

With knowledge.

And if all a student has is a computer, an internet connection, and the willingness to work hard, we want that to be enough to get started.

Hope for the best. Work as hard as you can. And give yourself a chance.

Because sometimes, the first thing standing between a student and a world-class education isn't ability.

It's simply knowing that the door exists.