The “maximum” score on the SHSAT exam is 800, however, no student has ever received an 800 on the exam. Remember that the SHSAT exam takes your raw score in each section and then gets converted into a “scaled” score. This scaled score changes every year and a perfect raw score on one section does not translate to the full 400 points.
So what score do I need?
Admission cutoffs for specialized high schools in NYC vary yearly based on the applicant pool. The higher the score, the better the chances of admission. Here's a brief summary of average cutoffs over the years:
- Stuyvesant High School's average cutoff score was ~559, with scores ranging from 552 to 566.
- High School For Mathematics, Science And Engineering At City College (HSMSE) had an average cutoff of ~512, with scores between 495 and 532.
- Staten Island Technical High School's average was ~517, with a range from 499 to 551.
- The Bronx High School of Science had an average cutoff of ~518, ranging from 510 to 532.
- Queens High School For The Sciences At York College had an average cutoff score of ~512, with a range of 481 to 535.
- High School Of American Studies At Lehman College's average cutoff was ~509, with scores between 488 and 524.
- Brooklyn Technical High School averaged ~492, with a range from 482 to 507.
- The Brooklyn Latin School's average cutoff was ~483, with scores ranging from 471 to 498.
SHSAT Secret
In order to get a higher scaled score and boost your chances, you want to make sure you really nail down one of the two sections of the exam. Scoring a near perfect raw score on the ELA or Math section will dramatically help your scaled score. If you are really good at math, spend those extra hours practicing to get a near perfect raw score for the math section. If you can only get 1 or 2 questions wrong on the math section, that gives you a higher scaled score and allows you to get a few more ELA questions wrong! This is a very important tip to use to your advantage.
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