SHSAT score calculator & conversion chart

Updated October 12, 2026 · By Christopher Lara, Stuyvesant ’00

Enter how many questions your child got right on a practice test, and this tool estimates a scaled score and compares it against the latest cutoff for all eight specialized high schools. One thing you should know before using it — and any tool like it: the DOE has never published its conversion formula, and it recalibrates the scale every year. Every calculator on the internet is an estimate. This one is honest about it.

SHSAT raw-to-scaled conversion chart (estimate)

The same curve the calculator uses, for every raw score (questions correct, out of 50) on the current digital format. ELA and Math use the same estimated scale, and the composite is the two section scores added together — so 40 right in each section is about 275 + 275 = 550. This is an estimate, not the DOE's table: the real one is unpublished and changes every year.

About how many right answers each school takes

Questions correct in each section for an estimated composite at the latest cutoff, assuming an even split between ELA and Math. Real students are rarely even — a stronger section can carry a weaker one — so use the calculator above for an exact pair.

How the SHSAT is actually scored

Each section — ELA and Math — produces a raw score: the number of questions answered correctly. There is no penalty for wrong answers, which is why a student should never leave a blank. The DOE converts each raw score to a scaled score, and the two scaled scores add up to the composite — the single number that decides admissions.

The conversion is non-linear, and this is the part most families haven't heard: by the DOE's own guidance, one additional correct answer is worth roughly 3–4 scaled points in the middle of the range but can be worth 10–20 scaled points at the top or bottom. For a student near a cutoff, the last few questions they get right are worth dramatically more than the ones in the middle. That asymmetry is why "just a few more right answers" is a genuinely meaningful goal in the final weeks of prep.

How this estimator works — and its limits

• The curve interpolates between anchor points built from the DOE's published guidance about the conversion's shape and from historical estimate tables. It is deliberately conservative in the middle of the range.
• The current digital SHSAT has 50 questions per section (100 total), which is why that's the default above. Older paper-era practice tests — still common in prep books — used 57 per section, of which about 10 were experimental questions that didn't count toward the score. If you're scoring one of those and can't tell which questions were experimental, your raw score slightly overstates the scored raw — one more reason to treat results as a range, not a promise.
• The real conversion changes every year with test difficulty and the applicant pool. Treat any estimate within ±15 points of a cutoff as "too close to call."
• The fall 2026 test is computer-adaptive, which means the real test's scoring is based on an ability estimate, not a count of correct answers. Raw-score conversion still makes sense for the fixed-form practice tests your child studies with — that's exactly what this tool is for — but no calculator can simulate adaptive scoring.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides: Prep apps compared · Cutoff scores for all 8 schools · The computer-adaptive SHSAT · Dates & registration