Three numbers, in order
Raw score. The number of questions answered correctly. Nothing is subtracted for a wrong answer, which is why leaving a question blank is never the right choice.
Scaled score. The raw score converted onto a common scale so that sittings of different difficulty can be compared. This is the step most parents find counter-intuitive: a raw 40 on a harder form is worth more than a raw 40 on an easier one. On an adaptive exam this matters even more, because the difficulty of the questions a student saw is part of the calculation.
Composite score. The two scaled scores added together. This is the only number that decides an offer.
Why you cannot work out the conversion yourself
The raw-to-scaled conversion is not published, changes between administrations, and on an adaptive exam depends on which questions a particular student saw. Anyone offering you a precise conversion table is guessing.
This is also why we do not print a predicted specialized-high-school offer on our score reports. We can tell you how many questions a child got right, in which topics they went wrong, and how that compares with the raw scores of students who have historically been admitted. Turning that into a promise would be inventing a number.
How offers are actually made
Students are ranked by composite score. Each student's ranked list of schools is worked through in order, and offers are made down the list until each school is full. The consequence is that there is no fixed passing mark. The cutoff for any school in any year is simply the composite of the last student who got in, which is why it moves every year.
We publish the most recent verified cutoff scores for each of the specialized high schools, along with a checker that shows where a practice composite would have fallen.
What a parent should take from a practice score
The composite is the least informative part of a practice result. What is worth reading is the section breakdown and the wrong answers. A child scoring identically on two practice exams can have completely different problems — one running out of time, the other misreading questions — and only the detail shows which.
Every wrong answer on our SHSAT practice exams carries its own explanation naming the specific mistake that leads there, not a general note. You can see what that looks like in ten free questions.
Practice the real thing
Our SHSAT exams are full length and written from scratch — every wrong answer carries its own explanation, so a child learns what they got wrong and why. Ten questions are free, with no account and no card. After that it is five credits an exam.