Kathmandu, June 14, 2015: There is a tough competition to get scholarship in Medical and Engineering. Each year 20,000 students appear for Medical entrance from which only 300 get scholarship. In engineering, around 300 get scholarship among 10,000 applicants. If students can practice objective questions that are asked in entrance exam from the start of their +2, they can be well prepared for the examination. By using Meroanswer, students will be prepared for both entrance and +2 exams at the same time.
Mero Answer is a web and android app for students to prepare for Engineering and Medical entrance examination. It helps students to practice model exam of engineering and medical universities in Nepal. It is also available on Play Store.
Meroanswer has been developed based on subscription model. Students can practice a few sets of questions for free. After that, they can contact them by using their website (http://meroanswer.com ), facebook page (http://facebook.com/meroanswer ) or phone number (9849516774) to get coupon which gives unlimited access to the system. User need to pay Rs. 1500 for a subscription of 6 month.
Features of Mero Answer
- 10,000+ questions
- Model exam based exactly on the syllabus of IOE, IOM, MOE, BPKIHS, Indian Embassy, KU entrance.
- Students can practice Model tests, subject wise test or even tests based on particular topics.
- An intelligent algorithm to generate questions based on difficulty, topics and performance of users.
- Hints and tricks available for solving questions.
- Developed by engineering graduates. Questions prepared by IOE and IOM toppers.
Team Members of Mero Answer:
The team members of Mero Answer are graduates of IOE, Pulchowk campus:
- Roshan Bhandari: Business Development
- Sijan Bhandari: Marketing and customer acquisition
- Raj Subit: Content, Marketing and promotion
- Sudip Kafle: Web development and Design
- Santosh Ghimire: Web developer and Data analyst
- Sujit Maharjan : Mobile lead
Alpha version of Mero Answer was launched among a 1,000 students preparing for IOM and IOE. Among 40 students that were selected in IOM, 10 were Meroanswer users. They currently have more than 3000 users in their system among which 500 are paying users. They have been the 1st runner-ups of Reconnect Startup bootcamp organized by US Department of State for Central and South Asia and also are the finalists of Ncell App camp 2014.
You can also visit the Blog of Mero Answer and find them in FB, TWITTER and SLIDESHARE.
Talking to Glocal Khabar, team of Mero Answer shares their aspiring story.
How the team was formed?
All of us were friends studying computer engineering at Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus. We used to freelance projects. Then 2 years before graduating from campus we started a software development company called Phunka Technologies. We saw different problems in our country. They were not just problems, we took them as opportunity and started working to solve the problem trying to create sustainable business.
Story of Mero Answer in brief: How you thought of starting this initiatives with what expectations and vision?
Before smart learning went mainstream, students used to spend most of the time with their teachers, an old paradigm of learning which is still well accepted and can’t be replaced by any other means. But, in today’s context, technology has become indispensable for learning activities. Technology has been adopted for learning, teaching process throughout the globe. Technology is no substitute for an inspiring teacher. However, on-line materials are far more available and accessible.
7 years ago, while we were preparing for engineering entrance examination, we faced a problem. As a student we had to go to institutes to prepare entrance examination. Those institutes were located only at Kathmandu and students have to come to Kathmandu to prepare those entrance examination. Those institutes charged us NRS 25K for a short duration course in a country where per capita income is NRS 75K. Besides the crowded institutes could not afford quality education.
The entrance examination is not much different from the education that we get at college and student could prepare those examination while in college. So when we were working we thought why not we try to solve the problem? And a year ago we came up with a prototype and tried to see how students would take tech to prepare entrance examination. The feedback was nice. We now are bringing features that enables students to start self learning for the entrance examination.
How do you find Nepali tech market? An opportunity or a challenge?
People are more aware of information technology nowadays and there has been steady growth in software / tech market of Nepal. The trend of using technology in sectors like schools, banking, health institutions , tourism, agriculture is the positive sign towards technological advancement.
The major challenge or hurdle for product based companies is that pushing their products to Niche market. It’s really hard to get first user to test products in the market. And we also found that the people who are maintaining their daily conventional routines don’t want to change and face the challenge of using technology. Some of them are thinking it as extra burden.
Since skilled manpower are outsourced to outside Nepal, software sectors are facing challenges to get good technicians to fulfill their requirements at the moment.
As software industries are flourishing with new concepts and ideas in Nepal, there is no doubt the country will gear up as ICT-based nation in coming days.
What are the opportunities and challenges you are facing?
Main challenges for us is to create awareness about the benefit of the application and technology in education. Besides we are faced problems about the payment but problems are not just problems they are opportunity too so we came up with concept of coupon based exam like recharge cards. The rise of Mobile penetration and internet access made us more sanguine for the future of smart learning in Nepal.
The reaction and feedback from students, community members, teachers is the greatest thing that keeps us motivated towards moving forward. And it’s the most cheering thing that we feel we are creating difference in the life of students when we hear those feedback.
Your message to youth?
There is no right time to start something new. The only thing is you should have maintained your execution plans for your initiative. And, startup is always an experiment on uncertainties. So, be ready for different experiments and pivoting of your idea.
Here is the demo of Meroanswer app:
