Bessy, coined for “Better Schoology,” is an app created by DVHS senior Armaan Aggarwal. Released in early December of 2022, Bessy is an official app that can be found on the App store or Google Play store. Popular for its ‘what-if’ feature which allows students to replace scores in assignments to experiment, Bessy is a widely used app among DVHS students today.
Schoology allowed students to view their courses along with their grades, but also gave teachers the ability to hide certain grades. During Spanish class in his sophomore year, Aggarwal used an online web editor to create a rough prototype of the app which started in September 2022.
“The whole reason why Bessy started in the first place was because some teachers hid Spanish grades,” Aggarwal explained. “So I found a way where you could actually get the hidden grades behind the scenes.”
Created for the purpose of viewing his hidden grades, Aggarwal never expected his prototype to gain popularity. After discovering the rapidly increasing usage among DVHS students, he decided to invest more effort into it by building a proper user interface and eventually a mobile app.
“I built it for two friends, and then they kind of spread it around rapidly,” Aggarwal said. “I never actually meant to release it. It just got traction randomly and with luck.”
Many of the features used by students were constructed for his own use. For example, the final grade calculator in Bessy is a function that allows users to input the specific grade they hope to reach with the final. Accordingly, the app will respond with a specific percentage required on the final to get the desired grade. However, certain features were also based on student suggestions.
“I know I had a lot of suggestions for, like, widgets on the mobile app, and I never thought people would use widgets. So I built widgets and then people started using them,” Aggarwal mentioned. “Same with notifications. I never really wanted notifications myself, but other people wanted them, so I built that.”
One of the largest setbacks for Bessy was the switch from Schoology to Google Classroom for the 24-25 school year. For an app completely based on Schoology, the sudden switch caused the app to crash. In response, certain systems were implemented to prevent something similar from happening in the future.
“My biggest [concern] was when the school took away Schoology, it’d break other schools using Bessy,” Aggarwal answered. “But it didn’t. Luckily, I have preventative measures.”
As a current senior, Aggarwal will be leaving DVHS.
When asked how he would continue updating Bessy, he responded: “I also know, like, people from other schools who are younger than me, so they’re willing to help out. Alternatively, like this is such a big school that if I need help with Infinite Campus, I can always ask someone from the school.”
