Manhattan Edge
COACHING OUR CHILDREN TO SUCCESS
Manhattan Edge Education
44 Wall Street
4th Floor
New York, NY 10005
ph: 1-888-407-8688
admin
Specialized High School Exam Prep
Every October, approximately 30,000 NYC 8th graders, and a smaller number of 9th graders take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). Their goal is to gain admittance into one of the 8 NYC Specialized High Schools which include Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech.
After the results of the test in October and November 2008, 6,106 students from NYC were accepted, out of 29,000 students, who applied. Students have until the end of February to make their decisions.
The test is given in all 5 boroughs. Students in Manhattan will take it at Stuyvesant High School, in the Bronx at Bronx High School of Science, in Brooklyn at either Stuyvesant or Brooklyn Tech, in Queens at Long Island City High School, and students in Staten Island will take it at Staten Island Tech.
The results of the SHSAT are ordered from the highest score to the lowest score. The list is processed in order by score, with each student being placed in their most-preferred school that still has open seats, and continuing until there are no remaining open seats at any school.
The student's absolute score does not matter as long as it is higher than the cutoff score, which is found by the results of all the students who took that score that year. For example, if there are 500 seats available at Stuyvesant the top 500 students who put Stuyvesant as their first choice scores will be admitted. The lowest score admitted is the cut off score.
The test consists of two parts, a Verbal Section and a Math Section.
Verbal
45 Multiple Choice Questions
- 30 Reading Comprehension (5 Reading passages with 6 questions each)
- 10 Logical Reasoning questions
- 5 Scrambled Paragraph (worth 2 points each)
Mathematics
50 Multiple Choice Questions
- Various mathematical topics tested
- Basic math
- Pre-Algebra
- Algebra
- Factoring
- Substitution
- Algebra II (9th grade)
- Geometry
- Trigonometry (9th grade)
- Basic Coordinate Graphing (8th grade)
- Logic
- Word Problems (cover all topics)
There is no penalty for wrong answers or unanswered questions. The total number of correct answers (the raw score) is converted into a scaled score through a formula that the NYC Department of Education does not release, and which varies from year to year. This scaled score, an integer between 200 and 800, is used to determine a student's standing. The scaled score is not proportional to the raw scores. A November 2005 New York Times article found that students scoring in the 90th percentile on both sections would not gain admittance to their first choice schools; meanwhile those scoring in the 99th percentile on one section and the 50th percentile on the other, would. This happens because the final grade and percentile represent the total score and the curve within sections. It pays to ace one section of the exam at the expense of the other.
We offer 2 levels of exam preparation...
starting in July the prep for 2011:
1. Individual Instruction in your Home starts at $95.00/hour for 10 hours a month
2. Group instruction (only 10 spots) starts at $50.00/hour meeting on Saturdays for 2.5 hours in Manhattan.
Email us at admin@tutorsnewyork.com to start the program application
Manhattan Edge Education
44 Wall Street
4th Floor
New York, NY 10005
ph: 1-888-407-8688
admin
