SHSAT : All You Need to Know About the Test!
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If you live in New York City, you may be familiar with the SHSAT (Specialized High Schools Admissions Test). This article will answer your questions about the test, and we’ll also provide samples of some test items.
What is the SHSAT?
If you’re not familiar with the SHSAT, it’s used as the sole factor determining admission to NYC’s Specialized High Schools:
The exception is Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which requires a portfolio or audition instead.
The SHSAT is administered to eighth grade students (and some ninth grade students) in the fall to determine admission to a Specialized High School for the following school year. Generally, about 5000-6000 of the 20,000-30,000 hopefuls earn admittance to a Specialized High School.
The SHSAT was updated in 2017, 2018 and again in 2022 and is intended to more accurately reflect the material that NYC students are learning in school on a daily basis. The redesigned test is more closely aligned with the New York State Learning Standards.
The test contains 57 items in each section. For each section, only 47 questions will be scored. The remaining 10 questions will be field test items, which are distributed at random throughout the test.
Students will not know which questions are scored items and which are field test items.Students have 180 minutes to complete the test.
Students can move freely between the two sections, allotting time as they see fit. However, it’s recommended that students spend about 90 minutes per section.
Question Types
Students will answer reading comprehension questions, plus answer approximately 10 questions addressing revising and editing skills. Several of these Revising/Editing questions are stand-alone questions, while the others are associated with provided passages.
In terms of the the reading comprehension, students will face the following:
* 3-4 informational texts, some with visual or quantitative graphics, covering topics that middle school students are expected to be familiar with, such as exposition, arguments, and functional texts.
* 1-2 literary prose texts, including adventure stories, historical fiction, and myths, that middle school students should know.
* 1 poem.
Each of the passages are associated with 6-10 questions and all questions on the English Language Arts section are multiple choice.The Math section contains multiple choice word problems and computational questions.There are five grid-in questions, which require students to solve a computational question and then provide the correct numerical answer (instead of selecting from provided choices). All multiple choice questions contain four possible answers.
Topics include Numbers/Operations, Rates per Unit, Order of Operations, Percent/Ratios/Proportions, Fractions/Decimals, Discount Interest, Factors/Primes/Divisibility, Exponents & Radicals, Absolute Value, Scientific Notation, Counting Principle, Imaginary Operations, LCD & GCF, Age/Times/Clock, Sequences/Counting, Charts/Diagrams, Even/Odd, 8th-grade Algebra, Solving for X, Plug-ins, Inequalities, Geometry, Circles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Number Lines, Probability, Combinations, Mean/Median/Mode.
What Do the Questions Look Like?
Below, we’ll take a look at some sample questions from the SHSAT, including Revising/Editing questions and Grid-In math questions.
Revising/Editing Questions
Stand-alone Revising/Editing questions resemble the following:
SHSAT - Stand alone revising/editing sample
This particular question requires students to understand correct comma usage . The correct answer is C , a comma should be inserted after “inexpensive.” These are coordinating adjectives that must be broken up.
Students will also need to know vocabulary associated with correct English conventions. For example, correctly answering the following question requires students to comprehend the phrase “misplaced modifiers”:
SHSAT - Stand alone revising/editing sample
In this case, the correct answer is B , Sentence 2. Sentences 1 and 4 don’t contain any participial or prepositional phrases as modifiers. In Sentence 3, With more than 1.3 billion citizens” correctly modifies “China.”
In Sentence 2, however, “Bordering fourteen other countries” incorrectly modifies “the main languages” when it should modify “China.”
Passage-based Revising/Editing questions will look like this:
SHSAT - Passage Based revising/editing sample
Here’s Sentence 3:
Sentence 3 of passage associated with revising/editing question above
The correct answer is C. The sentence is written in present tense, so the past tense verb “was” is out of place and must be corrected to the present tense “is.”
Here’s another passage-based sample question:
SHSAT - Passage Based revising/editing question
For your reference, here’s Sentence 6:
Sentence 3 of passage associated with revising/editing question above
The correct answer in this case is A. The main claim in this passage is that world history education should include an overview of the five major world religions. Choice A supports this claim, while also following logically from the information in Sentence 6.
On these question types, students may also be asked to:
Grid-In Math Questions
Grid-In math questions will look like this example:
new SHSAT - Grid sample
The correct answer is:
SHSAT - Grid Answer sample
To get this answer, students should set up in an equation in which x= the age of Maria’s brother when Maria is 22 (in 6 years). Maria will be twice as old as her brother, so the appropriate equation is 2x=22. This means that x=11.
Of course, that will be her brother’s age in 6 years, so we must subtract 5 to get the current age of Maria’s brother, giving us the answer of 5.
Here’s one more example:
SHSAT - Grid sample
The correct answer is:
SHSAT - Grid Answer sample
You can find this answer by doing the following:
new SHSAT - Grid Explanation sample
The grid-in questions are very similar to the content of the multiple choice math questions. The only difference is that students are not selecting from a list of choices and must provide the correct answer themselves.
How is SHSAT scored?
A raw score will be determined by tallying the number of correct answers given. Students are not penalized for incorrect answers, so no question should be left blank.
The raw score is then converted into a scaled score, which allows for comparisons between the various versions of the test.
Students are given a composite score, which is a combination of their scores on both the English Language Arts and the math section.
This composite score, in combination with the student’s indicated Specialized High School preferences and seat availability at these schools, will determine admission.
SHSAT Score Cut-offs 2023
Stuyvesant 561
Bronx Science 521
Brooklyn Latin 493
Brooklyn Technical 503
HSMSE @ CCNY 518
HSAS @ Lehman 510
Queens Science @ York College 527
Staten Island Tech 521
How to Prepare for the SHSAT?
The test content is aligned with what students are learning throughout the school year, which simply means that paying attention in class, taking notes, and completing all assignments may be more important than ever before.
If your child struggles, particularly in English Language Arts or Math, you may want to ask the teacher for additional help, take advantage of any tutoring programs at your school, or consider hiring a tutor.
For the Editing/Revising questions, reading a set amount of pages or minutes weekly can help sharpen your child’s grammar and word usage skills. You can also purchase Grammar or Usage workbooks to help your child prepare.
Lastly, as sample questions are released, it’s a great idea to spend some time going over the questions and correct answers with your child.
We hope that this information will help you and your child feel confident and prepared heading into taking the SHSAT!
