MSAT is a standardized test competition. Players pay in to take the exam and the person who scores highest wins the whole pot.
The production of MSAT began by creating a brand new version of the SAT using past exams, practice exams, and new questions written by SAT professionals.
The exam ran for the typical duration of the real SAT, three hours and fifteen minutes, and was broken down into sections of Reading, Math, and an optional writing section with breaks in between.
There was a rigorous quality assurance process for each stage of the project: checking the exam questions to ensure the correct answers, registering for the exam, and the simultaneous launch of the full exam for all participants.
Since every participant had to take the exam at the same time, it was imperative that the site was strong enough to handle the amount of traffic we would receive on exam day.
Having the exam run live for everyone at the same time meant we were able to see players' reactions in real time through Discord and Reddit. Many participants were working together to get the correct answers for difficult questions.
It was very rewarding to see the immediate response from participants, not only for their enjoyment of the project but also to confirm that everything was working as designed.
After a successful exam period, the winner was awarded with $26,624.
Some fun easter eggs were added on the website, including a fake answer sheet on the homepage which linked to a meme and a hidden answer key embedded in the code on the website.
Users quickly found the hidden answer key and submitted their exam with these answers, assuming they were correct. They were surely surprised when they scored 0%.
Lesson learned: Cheating gets you nowhere in life.
