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.
In 2020, as the world shifted to virtual learning, the Sasos pivoted to live online classes via Zoom. What happened next surprised even them. Students scored higher on the HSPT than ever before. The online format turned out to be not just a substitute for in-person instruction, but an improvement on it. The Sasos made the switch to online classes permanent.
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.