SHSAT study plan: what fits in the weeks left?
Give a starting point, the school your child is aiming for and the hours there are each week. The plan counts the days to the test date, places the four free official practice tests where they fit, and leaves the weeks between them for the items that were missed. It shows the gap to the lowest score that received an offer for 2026 admissions, and what the same weeks cost with a tutor. It does not predict a score.
Make the planNot registered yet? SHSAT registration closes October 30. Here is how to register on MySchools.
The composite from a score report: the two scaled section scores added together.
The weekend is counted to the Saturday.
At home, outside school. A timed practice test takes three of them in one sitting.
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Send us the plan, and tell us what you want to do about it.
We will reply with what we would change in it for your child, and what fits in the time left. No obligation.
How the plan is built
The weeks are counted backwards from the test date, seven days at a time, so the last one always ends on the day before the test. Whatever is left at the start becomes a short first week. The city publishes four official practice tests, A to D, each with 50 ELA and 50 math items, and each takes 180 minutes when sat under time. The plan uses them in order. The first week is a tour of the first form, untimed, so the child knows the screen before the clock matters. The last week holds one more timed form and the review of it. In between, the forms are spread out, and the weeks without one go to the items missed, split between ELA and math in proportion to what was missed where.
Under three hours a week, no timed form fits in a week, and the plan says so rather than cutting a test in two. With more forms than weeks, the extra forms are kept in reserve. Nothing new is sat in the last days before the test.
The line with a tutor uses the prices on our pricing page: a $150 diagnostic first, then $125 a session, paid one session at a time. There is no package. The number of sessions a week is a choice you make in the tool, and the diagnostic is where we would tell you whether it makes sense.
Questions families actually ask
How many weeks does a child need to study for the SHSAT?
Nobody publishes a number, and an honest one would depend on where the child starts. What can be counted is the time: the days left to the test date the city has published, and the hours there are each week outside school. This plan takes both and shows what fits in them: how many of the four official practice tests can be sat under time, with the weeks in between for the items that were missed.
Can this plan say what score my child will get?
No, and no honest tool can. The number shown for each school is the lowest score that received an offer for a past year, known only after the offers were made, and nobody can say how many points a given number of weeks will add for a given child. What the plan shows is the gap and the time. What happens in those weeks is the work.
Why not sit all four official practice tests in the last weeks?
Because a timed test takes three hours in one sitting, and the useful part comes after it: going back over each item missed, with the city’s explanation. A test sat with no time for that only counts the right answers again. So with fewer weeks than forms, the plan keeps the extra forms in reserve rather than stacking them, and nothing new is sat in the last days before the test.
My child has right answers from a practice test, not a score. Does that work?
Yes, and the plan uses them to split the review hours between ELA and Math according to the items missed. It does not turn them into a composite score, because the 2026 SHSAT is adaptive and no table turns right answers into a scaled score. So with right answers, the plan shows the school’s lowest qualifying score but no gap in points.
What does the plan show once the test dates have passed?
It says so. The last test date published for this season is in the city’s calendar, and the dates for the following fall are not published yet, so there are no weeks to count. The plan still shows the gap to the school and what a week with a tutor costs, and points to what is left to do before the results.
Where do the dates, the school scores and the prices come from?
The test dates (November 14, 15, 18 and 21) and the registration deadline come from the New York City Public Schools specialized high schools page, last read on October 25, 2026. The school scores are the lowest scores that received an offer for 2026 admissions, read on September 16, 2026 on the same site. The prices are the ones on our pricing page: a $150 diagnostic and $125 a session, paid one session at a time, with no package.
The four official tests and the checker that marks them are on our SHSAT practice test page. A composite score placed against all eight schools at once is in the SHSAT score calculator, the testing dates and the registration window are on SHSAT test dates, and the rest of the free tools are on the tools hub.