How the SHSAT Is Scored, and What It Takes to Clear a 2026 Cutoff

What Changed With the SHSAT Format in 2026?

Starting with the fall 2026 administration, the SHSAT is computer-adaptive: the next question's difficulty may depend on the previous answer. Every student still answers the same number of questions, 50 in ELA and 50 in Math. What changes from student to student is which questions appear, not how many.

The test still runs 180 minutes total across two equally-weighted sections. You choose which section to start with and set your own pace inside it. You have to answer a question before you can move on, and once you move on you generally cannot go back. Finish one full section before starting the other; you cannot return after you submit a section. There is no extra penalty for a wrong answer, so if you are stuck, eliminate what you can, guess, and keep moving. Do not default to "C"; correct answers are distributed across choices.

On past versions of the SHSAT, some items were unscored field-test questions. NYCPS has not stated whether the computer-adaptive exam includes field-test items, or how many. Treat every question as if it counts.

How Is the SHSAT Scored?

There are 100 questions: 50 Math and 50 ELA. Each correct answer is worth 1 raw-score point. A confidential formula that changes year to year converts that raw score to a scaled score. Admission depends on the scaled score, the order you ranked the schools, and seat availability. If you do not clear a school's cutoff, you will not be offered a seat there even if you ranked it first.

The adaptive engine only changes which questions you see. It does not change how they are scored: a scored question answered correctly still adds a point. Published raw-to-scaled conversions are estimates. Chasing a predicted composite is less reliable than accumulating as many correct answers as you can.

What SHSAT Score Do You Need for 2026?

There's no fixed passing score. Cutoffs are the lowest scaled score that fills a seat in each school, and they change every year. Published 2026 values ranged from 495 at Brooklyn Latin School to 561 at Stuyvesant High School.

Scores are ranked from highest to lowest. The highest-scoring student is placed in their first-choice school. Each student after that is placed in their highest-ranked school that still has a seat. You receive at most one offer. In 2024, more than 25,000 students took the exam and about 5,000 were accepted.

LaGuardia High School, the ninth specialized high school, admits by audition or portfolio rather than the SHSAT and isn't included. Cutoff figures are the published 2026 values from Bell Curves' SHSAT Workbook, Chapter 0. Cutoffs are recalculated every year; treat these as planning targets, not guarantees.