Our Story
In the summer of 1996, Mr. Steve Saso held his first HSPT prep “class” around a kitchen table at his home in Milpitas, California. It was a humble beginning, and little did Mr. Steve know that it would turn into something far greater.
The following year, Mr. Steve rented a classroom at St. Victor School in San Jose, where his son, Mr. Brian Saso, took his father’s HSPT prep course to prepare for his own high school entrance exam. Back then, the materials included Xeroxed copies of Mr. Steve’s handwritten notes.
Word spread quickly, and in the years that followed, Mr. Steve’s course grew in popularity, expanding to Milpitas Christian School, Almaden Country Day School in San Jose, and St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Saratoga. Throughout his high school years, Mr. Brian served as a TA for his father, learning the craft of HSPT preparation from the inside out. The program continued to grow, and new classes opened at several other Bay Area schools.
After graduating from college, Mr. Brian began developing the comprehensive curriculum that would become the cornerstone of the program. In 2010, Saso High School Prep was officially born, a full-service HSPT prep program built on Mr. Steve’s three decades of teaching experience and thousands of hours in the classroom.
Over the next decade, Mr. Steve and Mr. Brian taught classes up and down the Bay Area, from San Jose to San Francisco, refining their methods and deepening their expertise with every class.
When COVID hit in 2020, Mr. Brian and Mr. Steve quickly adapted the class to an online format so students could still take the course. Workbooks were mailed to students and classes were conducted using the Zoom webinar format. Polls, music, stretch/dance breaks, and Kahoot were gradually added to the class, making it a fun and enjoyable experience for students.
After in-person schooling resumed, the Sasos decided to keep the online format for their HSPT prep course. Not only could they now help students across the country, but their students were scoring higher on the HSPT than ever before. The Sasos attribute this to the additional resources they now provide to students: class replays, online worksheet explanation videos, and extra practice provided on Saso Prep Online. In addition, the webinar format eliminates distractions that sometimes occur in an in-person setting.
Today, Saso Prep serves students not just in California, but in Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and more. Mr. Steve, now semi-retired, continues to teach alongside Mr. Brian, bringing the same passion and expertise that started at a kitchen table nearly thirty years ago.