What is the SHSAT?

The Specialized High School Admissions Test or for short SHSAT 2026 is a test conducted by the Department of Education. It is the only requirement for admission to eight of the specialized high schools in New York. 

What are specialized public high schools in NYC? 

• Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
• Bronx High School of Science
• Brooklyn Latin School
• Brooklyn Technical High School
• High School for Math, Science, and Engineering at City College
• High School for American Studies at Lehman College
• Queens High School for Sciences at York College
• Staten Island Technical High School
• Stuyvesant High School

The only specialized high school that doesn’t accept SHSAT scores is the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, which requires auditions instead.

Students targeting NYC's specialized high schools should review our SHSAT cutoff scores 2026 to understand the exact composite scores required for each of the eight schools and how scores have shifted year over year.

Who takes the SHSAT test?

Students who are eligible for taking the test should be residents of New York and are in the 8th or 9th grade. They must live in the 5 boroughs: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and The Bronx. 

Find out how those successors pass the exam with our FREE on demand SHSAT prep Test!

What is the content of the exam?

SHSAT Format

The SHSAT test is composed of 114 questions. It mostly has a multiple-choice format, and it takes at least 180 minutes to complete. 

English Language Arts

This subject area is mostly composed of Revising or Editing and Reading Comprehension questions. 

Reading Comprehension

One of the things that students must remember is the Parts of Writing. They must be able to figure out the main idea of the subject matter and its supporting details. The main idea is the point that the writer wants to explain. If you'll be able to identify it, then it means that you have understood the passage. On the other hand, the supporting details are used by the writer as evidence to back up his statements or claims.  

Another is to differentiate the various structures of texts. They are Narrative Writing, Expository Writing, Technical Writing, and Persuasive Writing. 

• Narrative Writing - It is the type of writing that makes use of storytelling. Different elements are present when it comes to this. There are characters and plots. Plots are vital since it is the flow of the story. It also makes use of conflict. 
• Expository Writing - It is the opposite of the narrative. It is objective and straight to the point. It’s instructional or informational and makes use of the second-person point of view. 
• Technical Writing - It is the type of writing that’s empirical in nature because it contains graphs, statistics, charts, and other visual information. It also contains jargon which is what makes it different from expository. 
• Persuasive Writing - Its purpose is to persuade or change the opinion of the reader. It must have credible evidence to back up arguments. Otherwise, it would be filled with fallacies. 

In addition to that, students must know how to determine literary elements and poetic devices.

• Literary elements consist of a lot of things such as point of view, characters, setting, and tone. All of these are vital for interpretation. Good writing requires that all of these elements are present.  
• For poetic devices, it includes rhyme, structure, and rhythm.  

These are just some of the topics to be studied to prepare for Reading Comprehension. The next section would be the Revising or Editing portion.  

Revising or Editing

For students to know how to revise, they must go back to the basics. They must study nouns, pronouns, antecedents, adjectives, and verbs, among others. All of these are essential when it comes to formulating sentences. Punctuations and Sentence Structures also play vital roles. When it comes to sentences, depending on the punctuation, their meaning will change. 

Moreover, you must also review about independent and dependent clauses. They are strings of words that contain a subject and a verb. You should also know word usage and context clues. Word usage is about determining how words should be used appropriately in sentences. While context clues are those that will help readers understand unfamiliar words. 

The types of sentences  will always be relevant when it comes to revisions.  There are four types:

• Declarative - It is a simple statement, and it ends with a period.
• Imperative - It is a command, request, or instruction, and it ends with a period.
• Interrogative - It is a question, and it ends with a question mark.
• Exclamatory - It is a command or a statement that expresses emotions, and it ends with an exclamation mark.

Mathematics

This subject area focuses on a lot of topics from numbers and operations, geometry, and shapes to probability and statistics. There are a lot of things that students must have knowledge of.

A basic understanding of the mathematical number system is needed. There are real numbers and complex numbers, for that matter. There are also fractions, percentages, rational, and irrational numbers. The SHSAT Math can be more complicated to some because it requires a lot of reviews to remember formulas and equations. 

Students should also know algebraic expressions, such as monomials and polynomials. There are also algebraic functions such as exponential functions. They should be able to solve equations and systems of equations.  

 For probability and Statistics, they have to be able to summarize, interpret, and compare data. They should know how to make inferences and analyze tally charts, line plots, and picture graphs, among others. 

While for geometry and measurements, you must know the properties of triangles, polygons, circles, quadrilaterals, trapezoids, etc. They must be able to calculate perimeters and areas. Surface and volume areas are also part of the topics you should prepare for. These are just a few of the subjects that are covered in the admissions test.