SHSAT practice exams,
built for the test as it is now.
This fall the SHSAT becomes computer-adaptive and drops from 114 questions to 100. Our four exams are built to that specification: 50 ELA, 50 Math, three hours, with difficulty adjusting question by question.
What changed, and why older material no longer fits.
The SHSAT went digital in 2025 and becomes computer-adaptive this fall. Practice books and online tests built for the previous exam are now the wrong length and the wrong shape.
| Previous exam | Fall 2026 exam | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 114 — 57 ELA, 57 Math | 100 — 50 ELA, 50 Math |
| Difficulty | Identical for every student | Adapts to each student's answers |
| Math navigation | Return to any question | Forward only — no going back |
| ELA navigation | Return to any question | Within a passage set, until it is submitted |
| Question types | Multiple choice and grid-in | Plus select-all, drag-to-order, dropdowns, click-the-sentence |
| Total time | 180 minutes | 180 minutes |
Watch the test find your child’s level.
Answer as if you were sitting it. Get one right and the next is harder; get one wrong and it steps back. After a dozen questions it settles where the score is most accurate.
Four complete exams. 930 original questions.
Four full-length practice tests, sat in any order. Every question and passage was written for this product.
Genuinely adaptive
Difficulty moves item by item, settling where your child is answering roughly two-thirds correctly, the same principle the real exam applies.
All six question types
Multiple choice, select-all, grid-in, drag-to-order, inline dropdown and click-the-sentence, matching the digital exam's tech-enhanced items.
Correct navigation rules
Passage sets allow movement within the set and no return once submitted. Math runs forward only, exactly as the real test does.
Every wrong answer explained
Each incorrect choice carries its own explanation of the particular mistake that leads there, across all four practice exams, so a missed question becomes a lesson.
Comparable across exams
The four exams are calibrated against one another, so the third sitting can be honestly compared with the first.
The real test's tools
An answer eliminator for crossing out choices, and adjustable text size, both present on the real digital exam.
What you receive when your child finishes.
Your child sees a neutral finishing screen. No score, no answer key. The report comes to you.
- Scaled scores for each section, and a composite where one can honestly be given
- An estimated percentile band, with its basis and its limits stated plainly
- Performance at each of the three difficulty tiers, including whether the hardest tier was ever reached
- Every question reviewed: what was answered, what was correct, and why each wrong choice is wrong
- The exact conditions the exam was taken under, including any extra time
- Progress across sittings once more than one exam has been completed
Get it wrong. That’s the useful part.
These are real questions from the bank. Pick any answer, including a wrong one, and see the explanation your child would get.
What score does your child actually need?
The eight specialized high schools publish a real cutoff every year. Drag the sliders to see where a score lands, then change how hard the questions were, and watch it swing by a hundred points without the number correct changing at all. That is what “adaptive” means in practice.
Try ten real questions, at no cost.
Taken straight out of the exams we sell: SHSAT, TACHS, HSPT, the ISEE, the Grade 3–8 State Tests and the ASVAB. Not written to be easy. Pick an answer and you see the exact mistake behind whichever option you chose. No account, no card.
Choose your exam on the page and begin. Nothing to create first, when you are ready to buy a full exam, that is when you make an account, so your child’s work and reports stay tied to you and nobody else.
No card, no account, nothing to cancel.
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Four exams, from $24.75 each.
Pay per exam with no subscription and nothing to cancel. Buy one or all four, the more your child sits, the less each one costs.
What we don't claim.
The Department of Education does not publish the table converting raw answers into the official scaled score. Our scale is derived from a published legacy conversion chart and is clearly labeled as an estimate.
No official score distribution exists. Ours is built from published test-taker and offer figures, and is always reported as a range rather than a single number.
School cutoffs are composite scores. A one-section sitting receives no composite and no cutoff comparison, because implying one would mislead you.
No practice exam can. What it can do is make certain that test day is not the first time your child sees this format.
Questions parents ask.
Is this the same as the real SHSAT?
It is built to the same published specification: 50 ELA and 50 Math questions in three hours, computer-adaptive, with the same question types and navigation rules. It is not produced by the Department of Education, and no practice test is.
Who writes the questions?
Every question and reading passage is original, written for this product and checked against the scope published in the Specialized High Schools Student Handbook. Nothing is copied or adapted from another company's materials.
Does my child see the score?
No. Your child sees a neutral finishing screen and the report comes to you. That is deliberate: a score with no context, read alone by a thirteen-year-old, does more harm than good.
My child gets extra time on tests. Can that be set?
Yes. Extra time can be configured before the exam begins to match an IEP, 504 or ELL accommodation. Whatever was used is printed on the report, so results are never silently compared across different conditions.
What if the exam is interrupted?
It can be paused and resumed. Saved exams store the time remaining rather than a fixed deadline, so nothing is lost if your child has to stop and finish the following day.
Can my child take only one section?
Yes. A single section is scored normally, but receives no composite score and no cutoff comparison, since cutoffs are composite figures.
What equipment is needed?
A computer with a keyboard and a current browser. No calculator. The real SHSAT does not permit one, so our exams are written to be done without.
Prefer to sit it under real conditions?
A proctored exam in a quiet room, with staff on hand, is closer to test day than any kitchen table. We recommend Huntington Learning Center of Bay Ridge, 514 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11209.
Disclosure. Huntington Learning Center of Bay Ridge is a separate business from NYExam.com. Huntington Learning Center is a registered trademark of Huntington Learning Centers, Inc.; NYExam.com is an independent product and is not endorsed by, sponsored by or affiliated with Huntington Learning Centers, Inc.