The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city's nine specialized high schools. The nine specialized high schools are Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Brooklyn Latin High School, High School of American Studies at Lehman College, High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College , Staten Island Technical High School and Fiorello H.LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. The test is given each year in October and November, students are informed of their results in the following February or March.

The SHSAT tests for logical thinking and high ability in both English and mathematics. For Math section, there are 50 multiple choice questions (worth 1 point each) . For Verbal Section, there are 45 multiple choice questions.

• 30 Reading Comprehension (5 Reading passages with 6 questions each)
• 10 Logical Reasoning questions
• 5 Scrambled Paragraph (worth 2 points each)

There is no penalty for wrong answers.The total number of correct answers (the raw score) is converted into a scaled score which is an integer between 200 and 800. The cut-off scores for each school vary yearly. Base on my experience, I would say the cutoff score for Stuyvesant is around 560, Bronx Science 520 and 490 for Brooklyn Tech.

Our SHSAT class should be 3 hours long. ( 1 Hour of Math, 1 Hour of Logic+Math, and 1 Hour of English). The Math class will cover various mathematical topics which include Algebra, Factoring, Substitution, Geometry and Basic Coordinate Graphing. The SHSAT class is ideal for 6 and 7 graders. But eighth graders who wish to retake the test are welcome to register as well.