Author’s Blurb: If you’ve read enough of my articles on edutech startups, you’ll know by now that I wasn’t cut out for academia. I didn’t do too badly at it, but I was never excited about it (save for a few subjects in university). I choose not to remember my school life before university.
When Yong Xun was an SPM student, one thing that he struggled with when it came to studying was the inability to find short and informative notes for his subjects.
Instead, he had to lug around several bulky books just to revise, some of which could be over 200 pages thick. This struggle gave him a goal—he wanted to create his very own application called JomStudy from scratch that would contain 16 subjects of SPM notes, for other students in his shoes.
But first, he still had Form 6 to go through, which he completed last year. Now he’s 20 years old, and his app has just been published and approved by Google Play here, and Apple’s App Store here.
The app is completely free, and he reassured us that there are currently no hidden charges, subscription fees or advertisements.
With this story, he reached out to us in an email and asked if we would check the app out so we did, but more on our thoughts later.
“My intention is simple,” he said, “As all I want is to let the students know this app exists so they can make good use of the app, and thus experience something that I wished I had when I sat for my SPM.”
It’s Only The Beginning Of His Journey
Yong Xun is the sole creator of JomStudy, and it took him 6 months to develop. He went into its development with zero coding experience, and taught himself by starting with Google and YouTube tutorials.
To dive deeper into the world of coding, he used Ionic 4 and Angular 8 frameworks to code his app, and Capacitor to wrap his application.
As he was creating the app, errors plagued him. “Every time I finished coding a feature and did a test run on the app, I faced tons of issues as I am inexperienced,” Yong Xun told Vulcan Post.
“I solved my problems by asking forums, StackOverflow, and random strangers, which most of the time resulted in a double tick,” he recalled, but throughout the process, he kept a clear and positive mind.
He’s always had a desire to become an entrepreneur since he was 15, but many businesses that he started before this had failed.
JomStudy is his biggest accomplishment to date, and he hopes that it becomes the benchmark for his future startups.
“If this works, being a techpreneur is definitely on one of my lists,” he said.
In the next 6 months, he plans to create new KSSM notes for Form 4 and 5 subjects since the KPM has changed its syllabus.
Besides short notes, he’d like to add multiple choice questions and videos by chapters if the reception of JomStudy is great.
As long as the downloads of the app continue to increase and students use it frequently, Yong Xun intends to make JomStudy free forever.
It’s great that he’s doing this because he wants SPM students to have easier studying. However, if he were to keep improving the app, wouldn’t he want his time and efforts to be compensated?
When I asked him about the app’s eventual business model, he politely declined to answer as he was still in talks with his clients.
Not Your Average, Boring Study Notes
After receiving news of JomStudy, I immediately went to download it. You’ll be asked to create an account before you can access anything in the app.
While he did already say that there were 16 subjects, actually seeing all of them listed on the app still surprised me.
I saw my secondary school nemeses like Additional Mathematics and Chemistry, which was no surprise, but the fact that Yong Xun also added subjects like Pendidikan Islam and Chinese language studies actually impressed me.
Usually, most educational apps tend to focus on a few main STEM subjects, so I believe that JomStudy is one of the more “complete” study apps out there for SPM students.
No matter if you went to science stream or arts stream, the app has your subjects. When quizzes and videos by chapters get added, the app will only increase in value.
Regarding the content of the short notes themselves, you can tell that Yong Xun didn’t just copy-paste content—he actually took the time to rewrite information.
Just take a look at the screenshots below. Doesn’t it feel like he’s tutoring you directly?
And I think that makes a big difference. Having that slight “personalised” feel can make studying less boring, and seeing Yong Xun’s own feelings towards the subject or chapter reflected in the notes makes you feel less alone, so to say.
Kind of like, “Hey, he struggled with this too!” He even gives his own little study tips to remember certain information when needed.
Overall, colour me impressed with what this young student has achieved with this app despite zero prior knowledge of coding.
If I were to nit-pick, the only thing to complain about would be the speed of each loading page.
One thing to keep in mind if you’re using this app is that it’s only short notes for the subjects. It will not help you if you don’t put in the time to still study with revision books.
Think of JomStudy as a tool to strengthen the knowledge that you already have, and it should be something of great use in getting those straight A’s.
Bottom Line: Would this have been helpful for me back when I was an SPM student? I would say maybe, since the information is a lot more digestible, but it still might not have helped much as intended, since I wasn’t doing enough core revision for my subjects in the first place.
- You can read about other Malaysian startups here.