SHSAT → Ivy League Moms Club

WHAT ARE THE CUTOFF SCORES FOR THE SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS?

Offers to the testing Specialized High Schools are made in descending order of SHSAT score, combined with each student’s preferences listed on their SHSAT registration. Here’s how that works:

The student with the highest SHSAT score receives an offer to their first choice school. The student with the next highest SHSAT score receives an offer to their first choice school. This continues student by student in downward score order until a student’s first-choice school does not have any remaining seats. That student is then considered for their second-choice school. If there are remaining seats at the second-choice school, that student receives an offer there. If the second-choice school has no remaining seats, that student is considered for their third-choice school, and so on. This continues until all seats at all Specialized High Schools have been filled.

If a student doesn’t get an offer to their first-choice school, it is because all seats at that school have been filled by students with higher SHSAT scores. Similarly, if a student gets an offer to a non-first choice school, it is because all seats at schools they listed higher have been filled by students with higher SHSAT scores (e.g., if a student gets an offer to their fourth-choice school, then seats at their first to third-choice schools are filled with higher scoring students.)

If a student doesn’t get any offer to a testing Specialized High School, it is because all seats at all the schools they listed on their SHSAT registration are filled by students with higher SHSAT scores. Students are not considered for offers to schools that are not listed on their SHSAT registration.

The SHSAT is the only criteria used to admit students to the eight testing Specialized High Schools; no other criteria are used.

		2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012
Specialized High School	Est. Raw Score	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff	Cutoff
Stuyvesant High School	84%	561	563	560	566	557	559	555	552	555	559	562	562
High School For Mathematics, Science And Engineering At City College (HSMSE)	79%	518	532	515	523	519	516	504	513	503	512	498	495
Staten Island Technical High School	77%	521	527	525	551*	527	519	515	508	508	506	503	499
The Bronx High School of Science	77%	521	524	517	532	525	518	512	511	510	517	513	512
Queens High School For The Sciences At York College	76%	527	523	481	535	514	511	507	516	505	n/a	500	n/a
High School Of American Studies At Lehman College	75%	510	516	488	520	524	516	516	506	503	506	501	502
Brooklyn Technical High School	72%	503	506	492	507	498	493	486	482	483	486	483	482
The Brooklyn Latin School	70%	493	497	481	498	488	482	479	477	477	480	471	472

The table above shows the lowest qualifying score that resulted in an offer to each testing Specialized High School from 2012 to 2023. This means that any student with a SHSAT score lower than one listed on the table did not get an offer to that school. The lowest score to result in an offer changes each year based on that SHSAT scores and preferences of the pool of testers for that specific SHSAT administration.

*This outlier is the result of incomplete crowdsourced data.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO STUYVESANT IN 2023?

The cutoff score for Stuyvesant in 2023 was 561. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 756 students (2.73%) were offered admission to Stuyvesant High School.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO HSMSE IN 2023?

The cutoff score for HSMSE in 2023 was 518. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 152 students (0.55%) were offered admission to HSMSE.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO STATEN ISLAND TECH IN 2023?

The cutoff score for Staten Island Tech in 2023 was 521. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 286 students (1.03%) were offered admission to Staten Island Tech.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO BRONX SCIENCE IN 2023?

The cutoff score for Bronx Science in 2023 was 521. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 722 students (2.61%) were offered admission to Bronx Science.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE SCIENCES AT YORK COLLEGE IN 2023?

The cutoff score for QHSS in 2023 was 527. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 121 students (0.44%) were offered admission to QHSS.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES AT LEHMAN COLLEGE IN 2023?

The cutoff score for HSAS-Lehman in 2023 was 510. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 131 students (0.47%) were offered admission to HSAS-Lehman.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO BROOKLYN TECH IN 2023?

The cutoff score for Brooklyn Tech in 2023 was 503. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 1,498 students (5.41%) were offered admission to Brooklyn Tech.

WHAT SCORE DO YOU NEED ON THE SHSAT TO GET INTO BROOKLYN LATIN IN 2023?

The cutoff score for Brooklyn Latin in 2023 was 493. Out of the 27,669 students who took the SHSAT for 2022 Admissions, 387 students (1.40%) were offered admission to Brooklyn Tech.

IS 600 A GOOD SHSAT SCORE?

600 is an excellent SHSAT score that would guarantee admission to any of the Specialized High Schools.

WHAT IS A PERFECT SHSAT SCORE?

The maximum score on each section is usually around 350, and the maximum composite score is usually around 700; however, the actual maximum and minimum scores change from year to year.

WHAT IS THE MINIMUM SCORE TO PASS THE SHSAT?

There is no single passing score on the SHSAT. Read more about each high school’s cutoff score at the top of this page.

Source: Kenny Tan Test Prep

This SHSAT score conversion table can be used to convert RAW scores into SCALED scores. It will produce a conservative estimate of your score for each section (ELA/Math).

METHODOLOGY

The DOE website tells us…

In the middle of the range of scores, an increase of one raw score point may correspond to an increase of 3 or 4 scaled score points.
At the top or bottom of the range of scores, an increase of one raw score point may correspond to 10–20 scaled score points.
The maximum score on each section is usually around 350.

Furthermore, while there are 57 questions in each section of the test, 10 questions in each section are field (experimental) questions. Older versions of the SHSAT handbook mention this, while newer editions omit this fact:

Description of field questions from the 2020-2021 SHSAT handbook

Based on this information, I reverse-engineered the following conversion table for RAW scores out of 47. The actual conversion table used for your SHSAT will be more/less generous depending on the difficulty of the version of the test that you receive.

Kenny Tan, a tutor who compiled this information, then multiplied each RAW score by (57/47) and used polynomial interpolation to calculate SCALED scores for each integer from 0 to 57.

Are you looking for help preparing for the SHSAT? Schedule a free consultation with Kenny Tan today to discuss how one-on-one tutoring can help you get admitted to the Specialized High School of your choice.