Eight schools. Eight SHSAT cutoffs.See where your child lands tonight.
A free 40-question diagnostic gives you an estimated score with an honest margin on it — and the topics costing your child the most points. No credit card.
40 questions · about 50 minutes · free account, just an email · 3 days of full access, no card
Or read five sample questions first, with full explanations →100
questions · ELA + Math
180
minutes · speed matters
700
max composite score
Reading inference
+12% this week
Today's focus
18 mistake reviews
Logic first, then speed
Benchmarked against all 8 NYC Specialized High Schools
Why families need a system
The SHSAT is hard because every point needs a strategy — not because there are a lot of questions.
It is the sole criterion for admission to eight of the city's most competitive high schools. It tests reading, mathematics, pacing and nerve at the same time. A pile of practice questions does not address that. A system that measures, targets and re-tests does.
ELA is more than vocabulary
Inference, author's intent, and revising/editing are where bilingual students quietly lose the most points.
Math demands flexible thinking
Grade 7–8 content wrapped in multi-step reasoning and trap answers. Memorising formulas is not enough.
108 seconds per question
The real differentiator is not knowledge — it is accuracy under time pressure and knowing when to move on.
Grid-ins have no safety net
Five math questions have no answer choices at all. Most students never practice them separately — and lose easy points.
Try one question
108 seconds per question. Feel one.
A real question from the practice bank, at the pace the SHSAT allows. Answer it yourself — then see what your child gets after a wrong answer.
A price is increased by 20%, then decreased by 20%. What is the net percent change?
What parents are buying
You're not buying a question bank. You're buying a daily plan your child will actually follow.
Diagnose first. Then target the weak topics, calibrate speed with timed mocks, and send you a report you can read in ninety seconds.
Diagnostic first
Forty questions tell you the estimated score and how far it sits from the target school.
Mistakes come back
Missed questions return after 1 day, 3 days, a week, a month — until they are genuinely learned.
Exam-condition pacing
Timed, with no feedback until the end — so pacing is practiced under pressure, not just content.
Reports parents can read
Minutes practiced, accuracy trend, weakest three topics, and what to do next week.
The official Fall 2026 SHSAT will be computer-adaptive. SHSATus currently provides fixed-form digital practice based on DOE-published content areas and question types. It does not reproduce the DOE's adaptive item-selection or scoring algorithm. What changed for 2026 →
You don't need to know the material to know it's working
The parent view is plain language, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Russian or Korean. It answers three questions every week: how much did they practice, where are they improving, and what should they fix next. No jargon, and no waiting for a failed mock to find out something is wrong.
Admission context
Turn a target score into weekly, trackable actions
Cutoffs move every year with the applicant pool. We use the last published figures as benchmarks so families can work toward a concrete number instead of a vague goal.
Official 2026 admissions figures, from the Fall 2025 exam. History, not a prediction — the next cohort's numbers do not exist yet, and admission also depends on how you rank the schools and the seats left.
2026 admissions cutoff
8th grade · NYC Public Schools · checked 2026-08-17
- Stuyvesant561
- HSMSE539
- Queens Science531
- Bronx Science525
- Staten Island Tech517
- HS American Studies507
- Brooklyn Tech506
- Brooklyn Latin495
Roadmap
Start with the diagnostic, whatever the calendar says
Take the diagnostic. Identify the gaps in ELA, Math, pacing and error type.
Targeted practice assigned by weakness, building a review cycle around mistakes.
Full timed mocks, then a light final week. Reports shift to time strategy and closing the gap to the target school.
What NYC families actually pay
Private tutor
$80–150
/ hour
Prep course
$1,200–3,000
/ course
This program
$9.90
per month, unlimited practice · cancel any time
FAQ
Questions parents ask
Is this the same as the real 2026 adaptive SHSAT?
No, and it is worth being precise about it. The official Fall 2026 SHSAT will be computer-adaptive. SHSATus currently provides fixed-form digital practice based on DOE-published content areas and question types. It does not reproduce the DOE's adaptive item-selection or scoring algorithm. What it does give your child is the content, the question types including grid-ins, a digital answering flow, and full-length timed papers — which is what pacing and accuracy are built on, adaptive or not.
When should my child start preparing?
Earlier gives more room: a student who starts in the summer before 8th grade can work 20–30 minutes a day without pressure. But six weeks is enough to use well if the time goes to the right places — the diagnostic first, then the two or three topics costing the most points, one full timed mock around the midpoint, and a light final week. The points a short run can still reach are mostly in pacing, grid-ins and the weakest topics, which is why the order matters more than the total hours. The study plan page has a version for fewer than eight weeks.
How is this different from a prep center?
A prep center gives your child a fixed schedule and a fixed curriculum, whether or not they already know the material. This adapts to what your child actually misses, and it costs about a twentieth as much. What a center gives you that this cannot is a person sitting next to your child. Some students need that; many do not.
Do you guarantee admission to a specialized high school?
No, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does. Admission depends on your child's score relative to every other applicant that year. What we can do is show you honestly where your child stands and what is costing them points.
Can I cancel?
The monthly plan cancels from your account page in two clicks, and you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for — cancelling stops the next charge, it does not return the payment you have already made. The 3- and 12-month plans, sold outside the exam season, do not renew at all, so there is nothing to cancel: they simply end on the date shown in your account, and we email you before that. We do not refund unused time, which is why the diagnostic and a full mock exam are free — try those first.
I don't read English well. Can I still follow my child's progress?
Yes. The practice questions stay in English because the exam is in English, but every page you read as a parent — the progress report, the weekly email, the score estimate — is available in Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Russian and Korean.
See where your child stands today.
40 questions · about 50 minutes · free account, just an email · 3 days of full access, no card
Start the free diagnostic