The SHSAT: What is it?

Whether you are a 6th grader, 7th grader, or an 8th grader, you will be going to high school at one point or another. Many people choose to go to their zoned schools, others choose to go to screened schools, which are based on grades and essays! There are many other types of schools people can enter in, but the one we are focusing on is the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT).

The SHSAT is a timed entrance exam for admission into New York City’s eight specialized high schools. It's usually taken in 8th grade, but some students take it in 9th, which is more competitive.  These schools include:

• Stuyvesant 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 of American Studies at Lehman College

• Queens High School for the Sciences at York College

• Staten Island Technical High School

All of these schools are extremely difficult into, you can only get into them if you take the SHSAT.  Furthermore, 25,000 kids take the SHSAT each year, with an approximate 4,000 getting accepted each year! It may seem like a lot, but in percentage, that's only 16%. 

You may be wondering, what IS on the SHSAT? History? Math? Science?

The SHSAT is actually devised into 2 parts, Mathematics and English. Each section is designed to challenge your knowledge on the subjects. Each section has 57 questions, with the entire test having 114 questions in all. And as I mentioned before, it’s timed, so you only get 3 hours.

The SHSAT is graded based on how many questions you get right, so you don’t get points off for wrong answers, so you should aim for as many accurate questions as you can. If you don’t know the answer, take your best guess! Kids usually take mock tests and go to tutoring months in advance to prepare, since some units on the SHSAT aren’t covered in school.

Each specialized high school is special in its own way, but you should always know your preference. Do you want a school that has multiple AP classes? A lot of sports teams? Closer to your location, or a little far? This all has to be determined before you make your choice, and you can do this by visiting each of the school’s websites to see what they have to offer.

Finally, if you really want to apply for the SHSAT, then you can visit the MySchools Portal! There, it will have you rank your schools based on PREFERENCE. If you really want to go to Bronx, put that on #1, put Styuvesant at #2, and so on. You can put all of the schools, or only one, but it's up to you. It is recommended to put around 4-5 schools, so if you don’t get into your first choice school, you are considered for the second. Remember that if you get into your first choice school, YOU CANNOT SEE WHAT OTHER SCHOOLS YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED IN! So make sure you put the school you think will benefit you the most as your first choice!

Applying for high school can be stressful and really complicated, and the SHSAT is totally optional! So if you decide you don’t want to do it, then don’t. But I hope this article helped some people learn what to expect on the SHSAT in the future.