Kalyan Karamsetty isn’t your typical high school student. The Discovery Canyon Campus senior is the creator of a startup web-based business that provides homework help other students.

Karamsetty has been accepted to attend UCLA in the fall. Before he starts his college career, however, he intends to grow his educational startup. Called, simply, Max (themaxclass.com), the site is a “free repository that places content and user experiences first…Our main intention is to help you succeed by offering examples, tutoring, essay reading, calculations and other resources.”

The site is free for most resources, although it does charge a small fee for one-on-one tutoring and essay editing services.

Karamsetty worked as an election judge last year to make money to pay for the site’s costs, he said.

Karamsetty describes himself as “the kid who likes to learn outside of school.” He said he believes others are similar to him, especially with the pandemic requiring students to do a lot of learning on their own.

As he was creating the site, Karamsetty focused heavily on the design elements. “I’m design picky,” he said noting the user’s experience is of utmost importance. Interactive elements, modern themes and interactivity including gradients and color shading are incorporated into the site.

When someone enters Max, she sees a dark screen with planet-like spheres circling a yellow sun. As she scroll down, the sun grows to envelop the entire screen. Headings appear — Tutoring, Essays, and Examples — each moving across the screen with every mouse scroll.

Karamsetty said at first, he didn’t feel like an experienced coder, but over time he’s improved. “Now, I build one-hundred percent in code,” he said. With the knowledge he’s gained, the browser is his canvas.

Max offers curriculum help in Calculus and Chemistry, tutoring in math and essay help. For example, the Calculus 1 course offers reference guides for limits, derivatives and functions. The first part of every course identifies useful rules and numerous examples.

A variety of chemistry videos are available on the Max YouTube channel explaining how to balance chemical equations and naming compounds. A full course is being written to include studies of atomic structure, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics.

There are also a variety of calculators including graphing, function and calculus with expression shortcuts. “Use our calculators to check your work,” says Karamsetty.

“For kids having difficulty writing notes in school, I have the notes for them,” he said of the site’s library.

There is help for ACT and SAT test prep, Advanced Placement courses and more.

Karamsetty is in the International Baccalaureate program at school, a version of advanced placement that fosters critical thinking and problem solving. Most of these classes require students to write an internal assessment paper. Karamsetty he created the IB Database that “stemmed from issues I’ve faced. The problems I face are the problems other kids face.”

The IB Database is a collection of papers written by 20 current and past students with the intention of helping others find inspiration. Each has been cataloged based on the areas of knowledge covered and ways of learning, such as sense perception, intuition or memory. Many include the associated rubric that was used to write the paper.

If a user needs help, tutoring is available for a small fee. “I believe when something is free,” people don’t value it, Karamsetty said.

“No question is dumb,” he said.

Eight of his friends volunteer their time to help with curriculum creation, tutoring and essay editing. Each one has a specialty for which they can tutor students. If any area student wants to apply to be a tutor, that can be achieved through the site as well.

Students can select from four essay editing styles from basic reviews all the way to a citation review. A 500-word essay could cost as little as $10 to review. Essays over 2,000 words are $25 for the basic review. To receive essay help, click on Step 1: Select an Editing Package (themaxclass.com), select an editing package and then pay online.

Karamsetty said if any student in the Pikes Peak region needs help with their studies, he encourages them to reach out to the site. “Asking for help is hard,” he said, but he and his friends are ready to help.

“My goal is to reach every student taking difficult classes,” Karamsetty said.