This SHSAT cheat sheet distills both sections of the NYC Specialized High Schools Admissions Test into a printable rundown of the facts examiners lean on most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free SHSAT toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
SHSAT exam at a glance
- Questions: 114 total — 57 ELA + 57 Math (94 scored, 20 unscored field-test)
- Time: 180 minutes (3 hours), self-paced across both sections
- Scoring: Scaled ELA + Math composite (max about 800); admission by competitive rank order, no passing score
- Cost: Free — no testing fee; the eight specialized high schools are tuition-free
What’s on the SHSAT cheat sheet
- ELA — Revising/Editing — sentence-boundary and clause rules, subject-verb and pronoun agreement, modifiers, parallel structure, and transition logic.
- ELA — Reading Comprehension — main idea vs. detail, inference and best-evidence, vocabulary in context, and figurative-language effects across informational, literary, and poetry passages.
- Math — Multiple Choice (52 Qs) — ratios and percent change, linear equations, exponent laws, area and the Pythagorean theorem, mean vs. median, and probability — no calculator.
- Math — Grid-Ins (5 Qs) & Scoring — how to enter exact student-produced answers, plus how scaled scores combine into the composite that drives rank-order admission.
How to use it in your final week
- Drill the clause test until it's automatic — if both sides of a mark are complete sentences, use a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a FANBOYS conjunction, never a lone comma.
- Front-load Math computation: the 52 multiple-choice questions carry most of the section, so lock in ratio splits, percent change, exponent laws, and the Pythagorean triples (3-4-5, 5-12-13, 6-8-10).
- Read the sheet the morning of the test for a final pass on the memory hooks — no calculator, no guessing penalty, answer all 114 questions, and enter grid-ins exactly with no rounding.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed set so you rehearse splitting the self-paced 180 minutes between the reading-heavy ELA section and the broad Math section.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your SHSAT practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
SHSAT cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the SHSAT cheat sheet is 100% free to download as a PDF, with no sign-up required. It's part of Career Employer's free SHSAT toolkit alongside the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
The cheat sheet condenses the highest-yield facts for both sections: ELA Revising/Editing grammar and punctuation rules, Reading Comprehension tactics, and the Math formulas, ratios, and exponent laws you'll need — organized around the two 57-question sections the test is built from.
No — the SHSAT has no passing score. Your ELA and Math raw scores convert to scaled scores that add into one composite (max about 800), and admission is by competitive rank order, so the cheat sheet focuses on locking in the facts that raise your composite rather than clearing a fixed cutoff.
It's built from the current NYC Department of Education specifications, including the fully digital format used since fall 2025 and the computer-adaptive change announced for fall 2026, and we review it against the official student handbook regularly.
Click the download button (or the preview card) at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark this page so you can find it again in your final week before test day.
References
- 1.NYC Public Schools. “Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).” schools.nyc.gov, 2026. ↑
- 2.NYC Department of Education. “Specialized High Schools Student Handbook.” NYC Public Schools, 2026. ↑
- 3.NYC Public Schools. “How to Prepare for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test.” schools.nyc.gov, 2026. ↑
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