Cross-cutting findings from the first round of user interviews with Form 5 students preparing for SPM English Paper 3. Strongest signal in here: the AI tutor is solving a real classroom problem, not a convenience one.
Sessions: 3 (1–3 June 2026)Format: 30-min Zoom, prototype on phoneRecruited via: Cikgu Natasha, SMK Putrajaya
Sample
Who we spoke to
Student
Date
App tested?
Persona
Adif SMK Putrajaya P14 · Form 5
1 Jun
Full · 45 min
High-engagement
Dania SMK Putrajaya 5 Perdana · Form 5
2 Jun
Mic broken
Lower-fluency
Afira SMK Putrajaya 5 Perdana · Form 5
3 Jun
Full · 30 min
High-engagement
Caveat worth saying out loud. All three are from the same school, the same teacher (Cikgu Natasha), and two are in the same class. This is one teacher's enrichment cohort, not a representative sample. The themes below are strong evidence within that cohort; sessions 5+ need to recruit outside it before any of these become product-defining.
Findings
What shows up across the interviews
1
The AI tutor solves a real classroom problem, not a convenience one.
This is the strongest product-market-fit signal in the three sessions. Both Adif and Afira described their real-world practice partners as the bottleneck — not their own motivation, not access to materials, not their teacher.
My speaking partner — she doesn't like to talk to me about English stuff because she's also struggling with it. So Roly — it's like speaking to me. I like that.Afira, Form 5
The contrast with Dania makes it sharper: she doesn't even have a regular practice partner — she "sometimes" does speaking with her teacher in class. Same shape of need, more acute.
Implication · This is the marketing line. The AI tutor isn't replacing a willing human partner. It's filling the gap left by an unwilling, unprepared, or absent one.
2
Other apps exist in this space — but none doing what we're doing.
Two of the three students named an educational app they actively use. Neither overlaps with what Kelas Sekejap is doing — one skips English entirely, the other handles only grammar quizzes in an Instagram feed.
App
Mentioned by
Covers
Format
Siap Study
Adif
Bahasa Melayu & History (Form 4/5 only)
Full study app — no English module
My English Grammar
Dania
English grammar only
Instagram account, MCQ posts in feed
Adif's unprompted comparison of the prototype to Siap Study — the only direct head-to-head in the three sessions:
One of the best design on our educational app. The layout is simple, clean and easy to use. And this app does not contain any pop-up advertisement.Adif
Dania didn't get to compare (mic failed before she could test the prototype), but the app she does use tells us something important on its own: she found My English Grammar via her Instagram feed, not the Play Store. The bar for casual daily English engagement is being set by free, scrollable, grammar-MCQ content — not by anything that looks like an exam-prep app.
Positioning · The competitive moat isn't a feature — it's a category. No Malaysian app currently does speaking practice with AI tutors for SPM. The named alternatives either skip English (Siap Study) or stop at grammar (My English Grammar). The pitch isn't "a better study app" — it's "the only place to actually practise speaking." Worth landing in marketing copy and in onboarding.
3
Students want more scaffolding, not less.
A surprising and consistent ask across both engaged sessions.
On part three, you guys can give a template — a template answer to student to use so that the student doesn't clueless what to answer it.Adif
Roly chose two and I only had to choose one. So it's very easy for me to elaborate. It lessens my decision making.Afira, on Part 3
Adif also described how Cikgu Natasha actually preps her class: "We just remember the template, not the topic, because the topic is actually different." Students don't memorise day-specific answers — they memorise structural skeletons they apply on the day.
Implication for the 30-day backlog · Every Part 3 day should include an explicit template — a 4–5-line skeleton (open → reason → invite partner → respond → decide). The model arguments fill the skeleton; the skeleton is what transfers.
4
Part 1 is more flexible than our spec assumes.
Adif described Part 1 as "Q3–5 are random" — openers fixed (name, where from) plus a few rotating fillers. Afira said the real exam is just name + 1 question. Both said the longer app version (currently 6 questions) is helpful for revision but doesn't mirror the real test.
Resolution · Default mode asks 3–5 questions with rotation (matches Adif's reality). Add an exam-mode toggle that strips down to 1 for the days right before the trial / real SPM.
5
Adif and Afira are the same persona. Dania is a different one.
The most consequential strategic finding from N=3. Two students look almost identical in needs and behaviour; the third sits in a different segment with different anxieties.
Persona A · High-engagement
Adif & Afira
B1+/B2 fluency, can self-narrate in full sentences
Anxious about Part 3 speaking specifically
Independently engaged with the prototype
Use the speaking module purposefully
Found via teacher recommendation
Persona B · Lower-fluency
Dania
B1 or below, one-word answers in interview
Most nervous about essay writing (Paper 2) — not Part 3 speaking
Struggles to generate ideas on a topic (not structure, not grammar)
Common essay topics she names: food
Vocabulary comprehension is the other key barrier — "I don't understand the words"
Couldn't access the speaking prototype (mic + fluency floor)
Already uses an Instagram English account daily; discovers tools via her feed, not teacher
Strategic implication · The Paper 3 prototype is well-targeted for Persona A. For Persona B, the product probably needs a different surface — lower-friction, vocab-first, essay-prompt-led, discoverable from Instagram. Worth a 15-minute conversation with Isaac about whether to keep both personas in scope.
6
The character-led UI is doing real emotional work.
All three students made some version of this comment, unprompted:
It's so cute … reminds me of Shopee.Afira
One of the best design on our educational app. The layout is simple, clean and easy to use. And this app does not contain any pop-up advertisement.Adif
The photo is cute, maybe.Dania, in a session where she barely commented on anything
Three unprompted positive responses across three different proficiency levels.
Implication · Keep the warm-orange palette and character-led UI. They're paying off. And keep the no-ads stance Adif flagged — for him it was a trust signal, not just a hygiene one.
Process
For sessions 5 and onward
Recruit outside SMK Putrajaya / outside Cikgu Natasha's cohort. Two boys, two girls; at least three different schools; mix of urban and suburban. Right now everything we know is one teacher's enrichment pool.
Switch prep from email to WhatsApp. Email didn't reach Dania; WhatsApp does. Include a 30-second mic-test link in the prep.
Recruit at least 2 lower-proficiency students explicitly. Dania's session was the most informative about who the product isn't yet serving — even though it was the least informative about the prototype.
Get Cikgu Natasha on a 30-minute call. She's behind every recruit; has the real Paper 3 spec; has a year-on-year view of where students get stuck; is the closest thing to a content reviewer the team has.
Voices
Three students, in their own words
Adif · 1 Jun
This app does not contain any pop-up advertisement. So as a student I really appreciate that — it allows me to focus on learning without distractions.
Dania · 2 Jun
My English grammar… is nice. Practice like question.
Afira · 3 Jun
My speaking partner doesn't like to talk to me about English stuff because she's also struggling with it. So Roly — it's like speaking to me. I like that.