Everything You Need to Know About SHSAT

The Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) is the only factor on which admissions to eight of the nine New City Specialized High Schools are decided. 

If you’re wondering what is SHSAT, in this post, we look at the unique SHSAT structure, its question types, and target schools. Further, we examine what makes the SHSAT so competitive, how to prepare for it, and the common pitfalls associated with the test prep. 

Finally, we discuss how tutors can help their students prepare for the SHSAT effectively and what tools tutors to use.
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What is SHSAT and why is it important?

The SHSAT is a standardized test administered by the New York City Department of Education only for New York City residents in the 8th grade. The exception is Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which requires an audition or portfolio for admission.

While the SHSAT is mainly for admissions to Grade 9 of these schools, some spots may be available in Grade 10, depending upon vacancies. 

As recently as 2018, the SHSAT was mandatory for only three schools; the remaining schools kept it optional. However, after lengthy negotiations and legal struggles between the Specialized High School (SHS) alumni, SHS parents, community leaders, and lawmakers, it was decided to make the test mandatory for eight SHS, with 20% of the quota being filled by the Discovery program. 

As a tutor, understanding the SHSAT structure in detail is crucial. For instance, sectional time limits don’t apply to the SHSAT. For tutors, such information is important while helping students navigate test prep.

SHSAT Eligibility:

Students of only New York City schools are eligible for the test. They must be currently 8th graders or first-time 9th graders.

Schools:

Currently, there are nine Specialized High Schools in NYC, out of which eight schools base their admissions only on SHSAT scores.

Below are the SHS and their 2024 SHSAT cutoff for the admission year 2025:
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On the day before the SHSAT, students are required to register their order of preferences for each school on the NYC MySchools portal.

SHSAT Time table:

The SHSAT is conducted once a year, from October to December, as below:

• School-day testing: October
• For 8th graders: mid November
• For 9th graders: early December 

The scores of the SHSAT are reported in the following March.
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How competitive is the SHSAT?

Wikipedia says a total of 25,678 students took the SHSAT. Out of these, 4,072 students (15.9%) cleared the cutoff scores. That clearly shows the SHSAT is highly competitive, and students would require a structured approach for their test prep if they hope to qualify.

Important note: Starting 2025, the SHSAT will be administered only digitally, except for students who are permitted to take the paper-and-pencil version. Also, starting from 2026, the SHSAT will be adaptive, which means the difficulty level of the test will adapt to the performance of students in real-time.

Check out this mock digital SAT to understand how adaptive tests work.
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Understanding the SHSAT structure

The SHSAT gives students a total of 3 hours (180 minutes) for the entire test. The test is split into two sections: English Language Arts (ELA) and Math.

The SHSAT structure doesn’t impose sectional time limits. Hence, while students can choose how much time to spend in either section, it is recommended that they spend 90 minutes in each section.
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Each section has a total of 57 questions, of which 10 questions are unscored questions. That means, in all the SHSAT has 114 questions, of which 20 questions are unscored questions. 

The ELA section has only objective questions, while Math has both grid-in questions as well multiple choice questions. In objective questions, there are 4 answers choices. In Math, there are more objective questions than grid questions.

There are no penalties for a wrong answer.
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SHSAT question types and strategies

This section breaks down SHSAT questions types and offers practical guidance on SHSAT for tutors on how to coach students more effectively using structured tools and feedback.

Question types in the ELA section:

• Grammar: Students will see one or more sentences and they will be asked either to spot the part that is grammatically incorrect or select the answer choice that best corrects the grammatical error.

• Revising and editing: Some questions contain three or more sentences. Then, from the answer choices, the students are asked to select the choice that best combines all those sentences in a crisp, meaningful manner. 

            In some cases, there is a long passage and the questions test the grammar, revising, and editing skills. Other questions test the logical reasoning abilities of the student.

• Reading comprehension: There are more questions of this type than any other. Students will see passages, about one page long, followed by questions of various types. Occasionally, the passage may contain graphs or charts; there would be calculations involved, but the students will be asked how the graph supports or works with the passage.  

            Generally, there is one poem followed by comprehension questions. 

Question types in the Math section:

• There are questions from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, questions based on graphs, and probability.

• Many questions test the ability of a student to formulate and solve equations, or interpret graphs.

• Calculators are not allowed (unlike the SAT or the ACT).

Strategies for the ELA section

The ELA constitutes two distinct areas, only one of which, viz., Grammar, is bound by a fixed set of rules. The other area is Reading and Editing, which has to be treated differently since its rules are not formally outlined.

Grammar

These questions would be related to the rules of English grammar on topics like verb and tense, subject-verb agreement, clauses, modifiers, adjectives, prepositional phrases and the like.

Students will need a two-pronged strategy to crack these questions.

1. Learn the relevant rules of grammar. Grammar is a huge area, but the SHSAT won’t test everything. So it makes sense to learn only those rules that are covered in the SHSAT.
2. Know how questions are asked in the SHSAT. Students need to understand how the questions are framed. It saves them from both test anxiety and in the time they’d otherwise figuring out what’s being asked.

Reading and Editing

Some questions require students to interpret, summarize, or make an inference from the given text. Other questions involved choosing a thesis statement, improving the way the text is organized, identifying a statement that best supports or undermines a certain argument and more. 

Here’s the strategy for improving the SHSAT score with these questions:

• Learn to quickly identify the central theme of a passage.

• Understand how good writing is organized. As a reference, observe how good columnists organize their pieces.

• Develop a conscious habit of looking for precise information. Consider this illustration, “In the past few months, many tourists have requested ….” This sentence is vague as compared to, “In the past four months, over 4,100 tourists, which is nearly 60% of the total, have requested….”

• Learn to differentiate between arguments that are logical and arguments that are not. As an example, avoid the common pitfalls of inductive reasoning, where you generalize based on a few examples. Here’s an illustration of incorrect inference: “Jo and Megan, students of Rock Castle High, are skilled at pingpong. That means pingpong is the most popular game at Rock Castle High.” 

Strategies for the Math section

Math skills are of considerable importance in the SHS curriculum. Hence math becomes an important section in the SHSAT. For tutors it means helping students articulate the questions in the right context so that they develop confidence and improve their math skills. 

If you are a tutor, make sure your students first cover these two basic strategies:

• Grasp the mathematical concepts well. 
• Learn how to calculate without the use of calculators.

Next, here are the four advanced strategies for students:

• Eliminate the obviously incorrect choices based on the numbers involved. Consider questions on probability involving a dice. Since a dice has numbers 1 to 6, all probabilities end up with 6, its factors, its multiples, or their combinations thereof. As a result, any answer that ends in a denominator like 7 is normally incorrect.

• Learn to ‘plug’ the answer choices into the data of the question. In the case of equations, for instance, this strategy is particularly helpful.

• Limit your calculations. No questions would require you to do elaborate, complex calculations.

• The range of difficulty is limited. Hence, if a student has put in adequate practice and yet finds a question immensely difficult, in all likelihood she’s got the question wrong.
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Common pitfalls and student challenges in the SHSAT

Here are the five most common pitfalls students struggle with in the SHSAT:

1. Using external knowledge. Sometimes, a student knows something that is not mentioned in the text of a passage. However, they are supposed to answer questions only on the basis of the given passage. Using knowledge of what is not covered in the passage will always get the answer wrong.

2. Ignoring pointer words. A word like ‘However’ indicates the writer is presenting counter evidence. A word like ‘Except’ means the text requires the student to exclude something. Such ‘pointer’ words need extra attention.

3. Choosing extreme choices. In the ELA section, answer choices that make sweeping statements or completely generalize something are almost never correct. Words to watch out for are ‘Always’, ‘Never’, ‘Everyone’ and so on.

4. Not using shortcuts for calculations like percentage. That would only complicate your calculations. Let’s say the question says the next edition of a certain book will have 33.33% more pages. If you knew 33.33% is the same as 1/3, your calculations would become a great deal quicker. 

5. Being poor at time management. Students struggle to finish the test on time. With EdisonOS’s timed mock tests and adaptive practice modules, tutors can gradually increase speed drills to build endurance, without overwhelming students.
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What students (and parents) are looking for

As a tutor, you’ll be tutoring students. But remember, their parents are significantly involved, too, and you owe them certain deliverables.

Students preparing for the SHSAT want you to:

• Make their learning easier. Teach in a way that makes learning engaging and relatable. 
• Pace their learning. Avoid teaching too many things at once. Divide your tutoring into digestible chunks.
• Provide them enough practice through regular mock tests. With EdisonOS, you can quickly generate SHSAT-style tests and simulate real exam conditions to build student confidence.
• Personalize their learning. Use diagnostic tests and digital tools to assess a student’s ability at every stage. Then deliver your sessions accordingly.

Parents, on the other hand want:

• Reassurance. They want to make sure their child is in the right hands. Keep them reassured by sharing updates.
• Reports. Provide them with regular updates and reports on how their child is doing.
• Recommendations. If there’s something you want the parents to change at home, talk to them about your recommendations. 
• Results. Parents want you to help their child achieve the target score. The rest of the things don’t matter much. 
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How tutors can deliver effective SHSAT prep

How many questions would the ELA ask? 

Is there a sectional time limit? 

What if someone wanted to take a break while the test is on? 

Will I be penalized for a wrong answer? 

A surprising number of students do not know the answers to such questions. 

For tutors, it can mean a student not achieving the score they deserved. 

Here is the summary of how tutors can deliver effective SHSAT prep:

• Explain the test details at length. Make sure your students know the finer aspects of the test too. That helps your students strategize.
• Walk your students through the likely challenges they’ll face, based on the tests you conduct.
• Help them beat stress. An eighth-grader is hardly equipped to handle the exam pressure. Help them overcome stress.
• Use digital tools efficiently. Personalization based on assessments can be scaled efficiently if you use digital tools.
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How EdisonOS helps SHSAT tutors stand out

EdisonOS makes sure that SHSAT tutors get comprehensive, five-dimensional support so that their students can score very well. 

1. Get a comprehensive question format: Our software supports all different styles in which the SHSAT asks questions. Grind-ins? Check. Sort and match? Check. Basic objective style of questions? Check. After your students go through our test format, they’ll see no surprises in the actual SHSAT.
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         2. Recreate the actual test interface. Our interface is completely faithful to the actual SHSAT. Your students will feel they’re writing just another practice test even when they appear for the actual SHSAT.

        3. Build Your Own Test. Create as many different tests that you want. EdisonOS makes sure you create your own tests in under 60 minutes - something that’d take you days without our digital tools.
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         4. Track performance and KPIs. Any time you want to check where a particular student stands in their performance, we’ll have it. Feel free to build reports that will be ultimately shared with parents.
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           5. Identify student weaknesses early: Use EdisonOS’s assessments to uncover areas like reading inference or algebraic manipulation where your students struggle the most. These insights help you personalize lessons from the very first week.

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Learn more about how EdisonOS empowers SHSAT tutors.
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Be the SHSAT tutor every parent recommends

The SHSAT is a gateway to the dreams of students and parents of New York City. Little surprise, therefore, that the students and parents are demanding when it comes to choosing an SHSAT tutor.

Whether you’re a tutor who’s just starting out or you already have an established tutoring business, EdisonOS can help. That’s because being an SHSAT tutor can be smooth provided you have the right tools and courseware. 
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For instance, we provide our tutors with a digital test that they can administer to their students. At the end of the test, a detailed performance report is generated which provides actionable insights on areas of improvement. Tutors can use these insights to design lesson plans, set measurable goals, and help students achieve success.

Book a demo with one of our tutor-support experts and find how EdisonOS can transform your tutoring forever.

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