Mastering the Math SHSAT (let’s talk about timing)
If you live in NYC, have a middle school child, and are consider a public high school for your child you might be familiar with the SHSAT. The SHSAT is give to students in the fall (usually) of their 8th grade year, and it is the sole decider in determining if your child one of the specialized high schools (not including LaGuardia). The 8 schools that require this test are:
Stuyvesant High School
Brooklyn Latin School
The Bronx High School of Science
Brooklyn Technical High School
High School of American Studies at Lehman College
Staten Island Technical High School
High School for Math, Science and Engineering and City College
Queens High School for the Sciences at York College
In another post I can talk more about what each of these schools offer, who they might be good for, and specifics to think about if you are considering one of them. For now though, I would like to focus on the math portion of the SHSAT. More particularly, how your child can be most successful, and some important skills to master this section of the test. There are many challenges that come along with this test - and being aware of these challenges from the beginning is the best way to be prepared and truly master this section of the exam! Let’s discuss:
There are 57 math questions (5 of the “grid ins” and 52 multiple choice) - if we split the test evenly with ELA, students get about 90 minutes for this section. When we do the math, this averages to about 90 seconds per question. Depending on where your child goes to school, working efficiently may or may be something that’s discussed. As a teacher I always want my students to explore, learn through inquiry, and make mistakes. Then, on exams, I always felt like they should get a reasonable amount of time to finish (I would often let kids finish up at a later time if they didn’t finish on time). Unfortunately, the SHSAT does not allow for somebody to take their time. Students need to be sharp with the following in order to get the most out of the timing:
Be fluent in all of their rational number (fractions, decimals, integers, wholes) operations. There will be a lot of calculations on this test. For the most part these calculations will be a part of a larger problem. We don’t want to spend too much time on a calculation that could be done in an efficient way. In order to strengthen these skills: practice the standard algorithms (or any method that works for your child) for all operations and types of numbers, know your divisibility rules, know when it’s okay to use estimation
Know when you can use a strategy instead of the method that might be considered more “straightforward.” Methods include: choosing your own numbers or using the answer choices.
Know when to move on from a question vs. work through it. This comes down to preparation. Does your child know their strengths? If they know their strengths they should be able to feel confident in working through a variety of questions. If they know that they are strong in probability (as an example), they will definitely not skip that problem. However, if they know that problems involving circles are more challenging, maybe that’s one they want to save for the end.
While we don’t need to get a perfect score in order to get into a specialized high school, the goal would be to get 100% of the questions your child CAN do. This may seem obvious, but it might shift your thinking a little bit. For example, I don’t always jump to say “since we’re not strong in topic x, we should work on topic x more!” I believe that we want to keep our strong concepts strong so that we can count on them for test day!
I’m not going to lie. I go back and forth with the timing aspect! Sometimes I feel confident that the test is fair, but other times I feel like we are not giving opportunities to students who work a little slower (and do not have an accommodation that could grant some extra time).
I’d love to know your thoughts! What do you think about timing of standardized tests (or the SHSAT if you are familiar!)