Computer Dad

I didn’t like my old name. Dream School Test Prep.

So I renamed it: Computer Dad.

I polled my family first to see if it’s a better name. They agreed it is.

It’s like: I’ll be your computer dad. I’ll help you pass the AP CS test.

Updated the domain name to mycomputerdad.com, made the DNS changes, and changed my Twitter handle to @MyComputerDad.

Last November, I committed to helping my son learn the AP Computer Science A material. The school year was already well under way and he wasn’t taking Computer Science—and besides, he goes to an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, not an AP school.

But I’m a software engineer. And I figured if athletes teach their kids how to play their sport, why shouldn’t I be able to teach my kids how to play mine? He’s the middle child of my three kids and the other two have expressed no interest in computer programming, but he has. And I’ve already spent time teaching him Scratch and some simple JavaScript.

So we went to another local school in the same district and got him signed up to take the AP exam there on May 15. Then I found some resources that list the material on the test, and dove in to teaching him. We spent a couple hours a week over the next six months. I taught him the material, gave him programming exercises and quizzes, and talked through his answers with him.

On May 15 he took the test (remotely, due to COVID-19). Today he got the test results: 5 out of 5. He was really happy and I was really proud. 😭

In recent months I’ve been thinking: there are other teens who will want this. They’ll want to take the AP CS exam without taking the class at their school. Some students are homeschooled. Some go to IB schools with no AP classes. Some don’t like the teacher. Some have a full schedule. Some prefer to learn in private, self-paced. So I’ve asked a few people and the response was very positive.

Yesterday I got started in earnest. Chose a name (Dream School Test Prep), Set up a Twitter account, a Mailchimp account, a domain, and a landing page. I’m not too happy with the landing page yet but I was in a hurry to get something out. Why the rush? Because thousands of students across America were receiving their AP CS scores yesterday. I wanted to Like their tweets from the correct account, and have a mailing list they could sign up on. I can improve the landing page later.

My plan is to start small: make a short (1-2 hour) video first, put it up for sale, and ask buyers if they want a longer, full course. To reduce the chance of people just waiting for the long course I’m giving early buyers a deal: they will get 150% of the short-course price discounted from the long course price. I.e., buying both will be cheaper than buying just one.