About Shelby Joe

Shelby Joe 周 is the Founder of Piqosity. He has more than 20 years of experience in education as an entrepreneur, professor, and tutor. Shelby earned his BA in Political Science from Rice University. Born and raised in Mississippi, he now resides in Houston but has also lived in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hamburg.

Enhanced 2025 ACT Practice Tests – Free & Full-Length

Piqosity offers 12 ACT practice tests enhanced for 2025, and these tests are currently available for free! Just like the actual ACT, Piqosity's full-length Enhanced ACT tests are comprised of 50 English, 45 Math, and 36 reading questions. Compared to the pre-2025 version, the new ACT is over 100 questions shorter and an hour [...]

The Differences Between the ACT and SAT

If you're a high schooler getting ready for the college admissions process, you may be wondering about the differences between ACT and SAT exams. Versus the SAT, the ACT generally requires students to know more advanced concepts and work more quickly. Our experience working with thousands of students over the last 18 years is [...]

By |2025-05-12T16:47:08-05:00May 12th, 2025|ACT Test Prep, SAT Test Prep|

Announcing State Standards Curriculum Alignment

Piqosity math and test prep courses are now fully aligned to popular state standards starting with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). This new feature allows educators to see how Piqosity's math courses and subtopics line up with their state's standards. The alignment is particularly insightful for [...]

By |2025-04-17T10:21:48-05:00March 28th, 2025|Piqosity News, ZPQA Org Admin, ZPQA Org Teacher, ZPQA Teacher|

Announcing Student Reports and Data Export

We have deployed a new feature for tutors/teachers and school administrators. The new Reports page allows educators to have a more granular view of their students' Piqosity app usage and response analytics. Educators can save individual reports and even export to a CSV file. We developed this new reporting feature in response to requests [...]

By |2025-02-28T13:12:39-06:00February 28th, 2025|Piqosity News, ZPQA Org Admin, ZPQA Org Teacher, ZPQA Teacher|

Announcing AI-Graded Student Essays

Piqosity now integrates with ChatGPT to AI-grade student essays. Essay prompts are found throughout Piqosity including in standardized test prep courses like TSI, ACT, and ISEE plus our English Language Arts (ELA) courses for grades 5-11. Upon writing their essay and scoring the quiz, students will now see an AI-generated score and specific feedback. [...]

By |2025-04-01T14:47:29-05:00January 30th, 2025|Piqosity News, ZPQA Org Admin, ZPQA Org Teacher, ZPQA Teacher|

TSI Assessment Practice Tests (TSIA2), Free & Full-Length

Piqosity, a Houston-based edtech company, now offers 4 full-length TSI practice tests, and they're currently available for free! These 4 tests are the first of six TSI practice tests which will go online between now and February 2025. The Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Assessment 2 is often taken by Texas high school students to [...]

By |2025-01-06T15:46:03-06:00January 6th, 2025|TSIA2|

How to Use This TSIA Prep Course

Here are some tips to prepare for the TSIA2 using Piqosity's resources. Piqosity is an edtech company based in central Houston, which we think makes us uniquely positioned to help you ace your TSIA2. Please note that as of January 2025, this course is a work in progress; we'll update this article as we [...]

By |2025-01-09T15:38:31-06:00January 6th, 2025|App Alerts, ZPQA TSIA|

Announcing Update to Test Review Page

We have significantly updated the results page shown after scoring each test or quiz in the app. The test review page now loads much faster on both initial load and when navigating between answered questions. Other enhancements include: Accuracy by Difficulty Chart Questions by Subtopic Answered Question View Answered Question Preview Results Sharing 1. [...]

By |2025-01-02T15:08:06-06:00December 9th, 2024|Piqosity News|

How to Make Standardized Tests Less Scary | Managing Test-Taking Anxiety

If you find that the thought of an upcoming exam causes your hands to tremble, dries out your mouth, or makes you feel out of breath, you may be one of the millions of students who have test-taking anxiety. An upcoming exam can feel like a ghost hovering behind your shoulder, but managing the [...]

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