The SHSAT changed, but most practice has not caught up. SHSAT Specialist gives Grade 8 students focused drills, realistic tests, and clear explanations for the new adaptive format.
5 ELA + 5 Math · Difficulty 3 · No account needed · Everything is free
Beginning in fall 2026, the SHSAT has 100 questions: 50 ELA and 50 Math in a 180 minute computer adaptive test. Students begin around average difficulty, and later questions may become harder or easier as the system updates its estimate.
NYC Public Schools provides sample questions and fixed practice forms, but students cannot rely on a deep official online bank of full length, truly adaptive questions. Most familiar SHSAT materials were written for the paper test or the earlier fixed digital format.
Read the official format overviewGetting Ready sits below Level 1. Skill drills show the level and let you choose it. Adaptive tests keep difficulty hidden, begin at Level 3, hold Math steady for five placement items, and adjust ELA only between passage sets.
Accessible questions with familiar skills, clear context, and a modest reasoning step.
Questions that apply familiar skills in less direct situations.
The target test level: realistic wording, distractors, and multistep thinking.
More demanding applications that connect several Grade 8 ideas.
The hardest in-curriculum questions, using tricky constraints and several connected steps.
Start small when you need to learn something. Take a full test when you need to work on timing, stamina, and switching between skills.
Create a free account, choose one skill, and move question to question without friction. Practice as much as you want.
Browse all skillsPractice in a calm digital interface with adaptive question selection, passage sets, timing, and accessibility tools.
See the test librarySee patterns across topic, difficulty, pacing, and score band, then get the next best practice recommendation.
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I’m an upperclassman at Stuyvesant High School. I built this site because I know how hard preparing for the SHSAT can be. I was in your shoes not too long ago, and now that the test is adaptive, preparing effectively will only get harder.
I’m also a cofounder of Inside the SHSAT and serve as Vice President and co-head of the math department at the Metis Project, a New York nonprofit that supports elementary and middle school students.
Try five original ELA questions and five original Math questions, then receive a score estimate and a personal improvement plan.