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SHSAT questions to practice, with explanations

Here are 20 free SHSAT questions we wrote: 10 in English Language Arts (ELA) and 10 in math, on the content NYC Public Schools lists for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). Each has one correct answer and a short explanation. The real test has 50 questions in each section, adapts to your answers and includes fill-in math items, so treat these as a quick skills check, not a mock test.

  • 20Practice questions on this page
  • 10 and 10ELA and math
  • 15Right answers for our 75% target
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Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

Question 1 of 20

Read the passage, then answer the question. “For years, beekeepers noticed that once one honeybee found a field of flowers, many bees from the same hive soon arrived there too. In the 1940s, the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch set out to learn how the news traveled. He marked bees with small dots of paint and watched them through a hive with glass walls. He saw that a bee returning from a rich food source performed a looping ‘waggle dance’ on the honeycomb. The direction of the straight, waggling part of the dance showed the direction of the food compared with the sun, and the length of the waggle showed how far away the food was.” Which statement best expresses the central idea of the passage?

20 practice questions in the style of the test.

How to use these 20 questions

Questions 1 to 6 are Reading Comprehension on two short passages, one informational and one literary. Questions 7 to 10 are Revising/Editing, and 11 to 20 are math: ratios and the number system, equations and inequalities, and statistics, probability and geometry. The math is at the level of the 8th grade form, which follows New York State standards through Grade 7.

Work without a calculator and without a formula sheet, as on test day. Aim for 15 right, which is 75%. That’s our own target: the SHSAT has no pass mark, and offers go in score order until each school’s seats are filled.

How SHSAT scores work →

Where can you find more SHSAT questions?

NYC Public Schools publishes four free full-length practice tests on the NYC SHSAT Portal, with explained answers, and its guide has more sample questions. Those come from the people who write the real test, so do at least one of them under timed conditions. Our 20 aren’t from NYC Public Schools.

NYC’s official practice tests →SHSAT prep options →
Sources: NYC Public Schools and 1 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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