What is official
Beginning with the Fall 2026 administration for Fall 2027 admission, NYC Public Schools describes the SHSAT as computer-adaptive. Every student receives 50 ELA and 50 Math questions within a standard 180-minute total testing period.
Students choose which subject to begin. The system begins around average difficulty and updates its estimate as responses accumulate while continuing to cover grade-level content.
Navigation is more restrictive
A response is required before advancing. In Math and standalone ELA, advancing locks the prior question. Within an active ELA passage set, students can revisit its linked questions; submitting or leaving the set locks them. A completed subject cannot be reopened.
Adaptive does not mean unlimited difficulty
The official test adjusts difficulty based on ongoing response patterns, but it remains tied to the same grade-level standards and content areas. All students still receive the configured number of questions.
NYCPS has not published the operational item parameters, selection algorithm, calibration data, or exact scale transformation needed to reproduce the official system.
What our practice simulation does
Questionology uses independent, versioned practice policies to select difficulty-aware questions while balancing content coverage. It will label all results as practice estimates and will never call its adaptive engine or score conversion official.
Digital question types and tools
NYCPS materials show multiple choice, multiple response, fill in the blank, inline choice, hot text, drag and drop, equation editor, table grid, graphs, and other technology-enhanced interactions. Universal digital features include zoom, highlighting, and note-taking. Calculators are not permitted.
Try all 12 interaction families in our original, unscored Digital Question Types tutorial →