Hillcrest High School: average SAT score, 2017-2024
#191 of 548 citywide · 899/1600 in 2024 · Queens · DBN 28Q505
- SAT total, 2024
- 899
- Math
- 434
- Reading & writing
- 465
- Students counted
- 381
In 2024, students at Hillcrest High School who sat the SAT averaged 899 out of 1600 — 434 on Math and 465 on Reading and Writing. That is 80 points below the 979 averaged across the 461 New York City high schools that reported a score that year. Within Queens, where the average is 966, it is 67 points lower. Citywide it ranks 191 of 548. In Queens it is 45 of 92.
Across 8 measured years, the school's average went from 935 in 2017 to 899 in 2024, down 36 points. The peak was 939 in 2018 and the floor 861 in 2023, a spread of 78 points. Citywide the average moved down 37 points over the same span, so the school tracked the city rather than parting from it.
The sharpest single move came between 2023 and 2024, when the average rose 38 points in one year. Its place in the citywide order moved from 199 of 453 in 2017 to 170 of 461 in 2024, a climb of 29 places.
The 2024 figure is the average of 381 students at this school who actually sat the exam — not of the whole graduating class. That number has fallen sharply since 2017, when 662 students were counted, so year-to-year moves here reflect a changing group of test takers as much as anything else. Of those test takers, 8% on Math and 28% on Reading and Writing cleared the College Board's college-readiness benchmark. The two sections are far apart here: Reading and Writing clears the bar for a much larger share of students than Math does, which is usually where a prep plan starts.
The highest average in Queens that year belonged to Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, at 1463, 564 points ahead of Hillcrest High School. A gap that size is a different admissions pool, not a different amount of preparation.
Eight years against the city
SAT total out of 1600. The dashed line is the citywide average for the same years, weighted by the number of students counted at each school.
Year by year
| Year | SAT total | Math | Reading & writing | Tested | College ready, math | College ready, R&W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 935 | 464 | 471 | 662 | 20% | 37% |
| 2018 | 939 | 464 | 475 | 658 | 18% | 40% |
| 2019 | 928 | 461 | 467 | 619 | 19% | 32% |
| 2020 | 907 | 452 | 455 | 606 | 16% | 27% |
| 2021 | 918 | 453 | 465 | 316 | 8% | 19% |
| 2022 | 882 | 435 | 447 | 450 | 10% | 24% |
| 2023 | 861 | 420 | 441 | 422 | 8% | 21% |
| 2024 | 899 | 434 | 465 | 381 | 8% | 28% |
| City, 2024 | 979 | 487 | 492 | 53,619 | — | — |
| Queens, 2024 | 966 | 483 | 483 | 15,230 | — | — |
“Tested” is the number of students the DOE counted in that year’s average, not the size of the class. “College ready” is the share of those students who met the College Board benchmark on that section. A dash means the DOE published no figure for that year; nothing here is estimated.
Next
- Compare all 549 New York City high schools on the same figures, sortable by borough and by score.
- SAT preparation — what actually moves a score, and how far it moves in the time you have.
- Hillcrest High School on schools.nyc.gov — the DOE’s own page for this school.
Figures from NYC Open Data — School Quality Reports, Multi-Year Metrics, New York City Department of Education. Rebuilt 2026-09-15. Method and caveats are set out on the index page.
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