Selective Test Results and Placement 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which NYC specialized high school does NOT use the SHSAT as its sole admission criterion?
- Stuyvesant High School
- Bronx High School of Science
- Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School (Correct answer)
- Staten Island Technical High School
Correct answer: Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
LaGuardia High School admits students based on auditions and academic records rather than the SHSAT, making it unique among the eight specialized schools.
Question 2: The SHSAT composite score is calculated by:
- Averaging the English and Math raw scores
- Summing scaled scores from the English Language Arts and Math sections (Correct answer)
- Multiplying correct answers by a difficulty weight then dividing by total questions
- Subtracting wrong answers from correct answers across both sections
Correct answer: Summing scaled scores from the English Language Arts and Math sections
Both ELA and Math sections are scaled independently, and the two scaled scores are added together to produce the composite score used for placement.
Question 3: If the DOE publishes a cutoff score of 518 for a particular specialized high school, a student who scored exactly 518 will:
- Be placed on the waitlist because ties favor higher scorers
- Receive an offer only if seats remain after higher scorers are placed
- Receive an offer, as meeting the cutoff satisfies the requirement (Correct answer)
- Need to submit additional materials to secure the spot
Correct answer: Receive an offer, as meeting the cutoff satisfies the requirement
The cutoff is the minimum score at which an offer was made; students at or above the cutoff in a given year received offers.
Question 4: Why might a student with a higher SHSAT score end up at a less prestigious specialized school than a student with a lower score?
- The higher-scoring student's family chose a school in a different borough
- The higher-scoring student listed only one school on the application
- The higher-scoring student's school choices ranked lower schools first (Correct answer)
- Higher-scoring students must attend the school with the most available seats
Correct answer: The higher-scoring student's school choices ranked lower schools first
School preference ranking matters: a high scorer who places a lower-cutoff school first may be matched there before being considered for a harder-to-enter school they listed second.
Question 5: SHSAT results in New York City are typically released to students in:
- October of the same school year the test was taken
- Late March or early April following the October/November test date (Correct answer)
- January, about two months after the test date
- June, just before the end of the academic year
Correct answer: Late March or early April following the October/November test date
The NYC DOE processes all SHSAT results and publishes placement offers in the spring, generally late March to early April, for the following September enrollment.
Question 6: A student who receives a specialized high school offer but later moves out of NYC should:
- Retain the offer because it was earned before the move
- Contact the DOE immediately as residency in NYC is required to enroll (Correct answer)
- Defer the offer for one year until they may return
- Transfer the offer to a sibling who attends the same middle school
Correct answer: Contact the DOE immediately as residency in NYC is required to enroll
NYC specialized high school enrollment requires the student to be a NYC resident; students who move out of the city must notify the DOE and will typically forfeit the offer.
Question 7: After receiving SHSAT results, the deadline for students to accept or decline their specialized high school offer is typically:
- The same day results are released
- Within 48 hours of results release
- A few weeks after results are released (Correct answer)
- Any time before the first day of school in September
Correct answer: A few weeks after results are released
The DOE provides a window of several weeks after results are released for families to accept or decline offers, allowing time to visit schools and make an informed decision.
Selective Test Results and Placement 3
Which NYC specialized high school does NOT use the SHSAT as its sole admission criterion?