United States · Admissions testHow is the SHSAT scored?
- Every question has a set difficulty level, and all of them sit on one measurement scale.
- As you answer, your score estimate updates after each question, or after each passage set in English Language Arts (ELA).
- At the end, your pattern of right and wrong answers, weighed against each question’s difficulty, gives a performance score for each subject.
- Each subject’s performance score goes through a standardization process into a scaled score.
- The two scaled scores are added together. That composite score is what ranks students for offers.
NYCPS says the last two steps, from performance score to the score you’re given, work the same way as on earlier SHSAT administrations.
Is there an official SHSAT score calculator?
No. A score calculator or conversion chart turns a number of correct answers into a scaled score. On the computer-adaptive SHSAT, NYCPS says scores depend on which questions you got right and how hard they were, so a count of right answers can’t give your score. NYCPS publishes no raw-to-scaled chart for the new test, so any SHSAT score calculator online is someone else’s estimate, not NYC’s.
Questions that don’t count
Each subject includes 10 unscored field-test questions. They don’t count toward your score and don’t change how the test adapts. NYC asks students to make their best attempt on every question.
Highest and average SHSAT scores
NYCPS doesn’t publish the highest possible score, a score range or an average for the SHSAT. What it does publish, after offers go out, is the lowest score that qualified for each school.
Sources: NYC Public Schools and 1 more. Checked October 2026.
- NYC Public Schools: Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, scoring ↗
- NYC Public Schools: Specialized High Schools ↗
Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.
Explore
Everything else, in one place
Test content and guides
Results and programs