Learn by doing, with a teacher who watches every step.
Naalanda is designed to make you solve problems that you find difficult.
Free while in beta. Works on a laptop or desktop; phones aren't supported yet.
Why we're building this
Learning, if the resources were abundant
When we think about learning, we think of classrooms and schools. This is an attempt to think about learning as if the resources were abundant.
So far, almost every edtech company has built a content delivery platform, distributed and scaled either through YouTube and Instagram or through a platform of its own. Once everybody had the internet, content delivered the right way, with sound pedagogy, from the right people, made a real difference. Those models worked remarkably well for the age of the Internet. Many of us are living proof of it.
The age of AI needs something new, and it isn't just more customised content.
We always overlook the time spent in the shadows
99% of everything we do as humans will be wasted, and so will 99% of the effort of 99% of us. We are propelled forward by the ideas, the execution and the effort of the 1% of the top 1% in any domain.
Athletes run thousands of kilometres in a season to race 5 km, 10 km, or a marathon. Footballers train for decades, thousands of hours, to touch the ball for two or three minutes in a 90-minute game. Scientists trade ideas, learn new techniques and refine their proofs for decades to find one discovery worth remembering. Cricketers face tens of thousands of balls in the nets to play fifty in a match, or bowl ten overs.
The race, the match, the discovery is the part everyone sees. The shadows are where it was decided.
Proximity decides your destiny
Top athletes come in waves from the best programmes in the world: the Norwegians, La Masia, Shivaji Park, University of Oregon. It isn't limited to athletes. The Manhattan Project, Silicon Valley, ISRO, Hollywood, Bollywood. Who you are near decides what you become.
All of us need guidance to learn
Sometimes once, when we take up something new. Sometimes periodically, to stay aligned with the goal, because the plan will change and we won't feel our best every day. The fastest way to learn anything is to not get hurt along the way, physically, mentally or emotionally. That is what a coach is for: progress without injury.
Technology raises the ceiling
Technology makes athletes better: Zwift, Strava, Garmin, Coros, Whoop. It makes chess and Go players better: engines. It makes scientists better: simulations, and proof assistants like Lean, FORM and Mathematica. It makes engineers better: compilers, IDEs, MATLAB, EDA, Ansys. Every domain that got good tools got better people.
Curiosity A/cDr.To Knowledge A/c
(Being the first step taken)
Now, what if
- You had technology that gave you proximity to the most learned and patient teacher in whatever domain you wanted to learn
- One who sees you through the shadows, and corrects your form and your thinking about what you really want to improve, at every step of the way
- And gives you feedback just to correct yourself at your thinking, nothing less or nothing more
That is what we are building at Naalanda AI.
The thesis
Test prep is solving problems. Period.
Test prep can only solve for two things
Access to the material, or the quality of the teacher. Access has already been democratised, and it didn't dent the incumbents; the premium of a physical classroom only went up. And a better explanation isn't enough either. Every tutor has built one, and if a student knew which question to ask, they'd have done fine in the old model anyway. Digital education isn't a content problem. It's a motivation problem.
So what actually moves the needle
Solving problems. More of them, at rising difficulty, so you get better at the unusual cases. The same problem from different angles, so you find the relationships between problems and knowledge transfers. The top 1% already do this. We index the whole product on helping them do more of it, and pushing the ceiling further.
Never stuck, and the wrong step
The urge to solve the next problem dies the moment you're stuck. So we work out exactly what you already know, and give you the next question closest to the one you just solved.
And competitive problem solving is a series of steps, usually with only one right set. The reason you got stuck on that hard problem at school was a wrong step. Naalanda registers that step, and has you practise the same step in another question, without telling you, until you get it right. Fewer wrong steps, a straighter path to the hard problems, a subject prepared much faster.
Most people get stuck in the same places. Once the platform knows where, every student who gets stuck teaches it how to unstick the next one.
Good feedback
What good feedback looks like
Most feedback in education arrives too late and says too little. A score at the end of a test tells you something went wrong, weeks after it did, somewhere in forty questions.
It comes when and where you need it the most
A good coach will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it, and how to use it to get better.
It tells you the rule, not the answer
An answer teaches you one question. The rule behind it teaches you every question where that rule applies.
It is about your attempt, not the model solution
A solution video explains the question the same way to everyone. A review explains the solution the way you understand it, starting from what you already got right and working through where you went wrong and why.
It doesn't hurt
A wrong step should cost you ten seconds, not your confidence. Then the same step comes back in another question, until it is yours.
How it works
Imagine a game where you do the entire process yourself, with a teacher watching over you and guiding you through.
Every step, at the moment you need it.
Who it's for
High-agency students who want to get better at their craft
If you would rather attempt ten questions than sit through one more lecture, this is built for you. The rest will follow.
CA FoundationClass 11 & 12 AccountsB.Com
More syllabuses coming
What beta means
It works. It isn't finished.
- ✓Accounts is live, from the accounting equation to the balance sheet, with more branches being added.
- ✓Other subjects and exams are on the way. The board and the review work the same way for every one of them.
- →Laptop and desktop only for now. The board needs the room.
- →Things will occasionally break or feel rough. When they do, tell us. Every attempt you make shapes what we fix next.
Give it a try
Get on the board
Nothing to install. Sign in with your email and a six-digit code, and you're solving within a minute.
Free during the beta. You'll need a laptop or desktop.