HSPT, ISEE, SSAT, SHSAT, and TACHS test prep resources.
Comprehensive HSPT prep — practice questions covering the full exam, complete course notes, timed mock exams, and detailed explanations for every answer. 1 year of access on any device with built-in progress tracking.
Comprehensive ISEE prep — practice questions covering the full exam, complete course notes, timed mock exams, and detailed explanations for every answer. 1 year of access on any device with built-in progress tracking.
Comprehensive SHSAT prep — practice questions covering the full exam, complete course notes, timed mock exams, and detailed explanations for every answer. 1 year of access on any device with built-in progress tracking.
Comprehensive SSAT prep — practice questions covering the full exam, complete course notes, timed mock exams, and detailed explanations for every answer. 1 year of access on any device with built-in progress tracking.
Comprehensive TACHS prep — practice questions covering the full exam, complete course notes, timed mock exams, and detailed explanations for every answer. 1 year of access on any device with built-in progress tracking.
Gaining admission to competitive private, Catholic, and specialized public high schools often requires a strong performance on a standardized entrance exam. These tests evaluate verbal, quantitative, and reading skills at the middle-school level, and each has its own format, scoring, and quirks.
The HSPT is the most widely used entrance exam for Catholic high schools. It consists of five sections: Verbal Skills, Quantitative Skills, Reading, Mathematics, and Language — 298 questions completed in about 2.5 hours. Pacing is critical. Scores are used both for admission and scholarship consideration.
The Verbal Skills section includes synonyms, antonyms, analogies, and logic questions. Quantitative Skills tests number series, geometric comparisons, and non-verbal reasoning — distinct from the Mathematics section, which covers arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. The HSPT is typically administered once per year and most schools do not allow retakes.
The ISEE is used by many independent and private schools. It comes in four levels: Primary (grades 2-4), Lower (5-6), Middle (7-8), and Upper (9-12). The ISEE includes Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and an unscored Essay. Scores are reported as scaled scores (760-940) and stanine percentiles. The ISEE can be taken up to three times per admissions season.
The SSAT is another major entrance exam for independent schools, with Upper (grades 8-11), Middle (5-7), and Elementary (3-4) levels. It includes Verbal (synonyms and analogies), Quantitative (two math sections), Reading Comprehension, and an unscored Writing Sample.
One critical feature of the SSAT is its scoring penalty — a quarter point is deducted for each wrong answer, making strategic guessing important. This is different from the ISEE, which has no wrong-answer penalty.
The SHSAT is the sole admissions criterion for eight of New York City's nine Specialized High Schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech. It tests English Language Arts and Mathematics. The SHSAT is extremely competitive — tens of thousands of students take it for a limited number of seats, and admission is based on rank-order scoring with no set passing score.
The TACHS is used by Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of New York. It tests Reading, Language, Math, and Abilities (abstract reasoning). The Abilities section is unique to the TACHS and tests non-verbal reasoning through pattern recognition and figure matrices.
For all high school admissions tests, the fundamentals are the same: build strong reading comprehension habits, review grade-level math thoroughly, and practice under timed conditions. For the HSPT, speed matters. For the SSAT, learn when to skip vs. guess given the wrong-answer penalty. For the SHSAT, focus heavily on math for the largest score improvement potential.
Our platform offers practice questions for each of these entrance exams, with explanations calibrated to the middle-school level and aligned to each test's format.