TWO young West Cork entrepreneurs have launched a revision platform to ensure all exam students, regardless of background, have equal access to online resources.
Phillip McKenna (23), Clonakilty and Oisin Devoy, (24) from Rosscarbery are the founders of SimpleStudy which has a range of exclusive resources and tools designed to help students improve exam performance.
From revision notes for entire subjects through to H1 essays, timed exam questions, custom exams, past papers, marking schemes, a homework journal, exam quizzes, experiments and more, they describe it as ‘an all-in-one platform designed for Ireland’s Leaving and Junior Cert exams.’
The two met while attending Bandon Grammar School, and the idea came to them while they were doing their own Leaving Cert exams.
‘We saw how much gamification there is in standardised exams, leading some students to get a huge advantage while others have nothing. To solve this, we created our own study platform and revision materials, so now, any student can access the best resources, no matter what school they go to,’ said Oisin.
He studied in Paris, doing a BSC in Finance & MSC in Innovation, and is fluent in multiple languages; while Phillip studied Marketing in the Netherlands and was an early employee at a Canadian tech start-up that was acquired last year.
The resource is free to sign up to.
‘SimpleStudy will always be free, but students can choose to upgrade for €4.15 a month to have unlimited access to all our resources,’ said Phillip. ‘We’re currently starting to offer packages for entire schools to give SimpleStudy accounts to their students. To support Deis schools in Cork, we will be offering packages for free to any that would like to take us up on the offer.’
The business has had Leo support, which they say has been instrumental in their success.
‘We would encourage any entrepreneurs to talk to their local enterprise office. We’ve got financial support, but, most critically, they’ve always been there while we’ve gone from an idea to a working business,’ said Oisin.
