Our SHSAT practice tests are a great way to establish a benchmark, check for understanding, and gauge progress. With our proctoring video (included with your enrollment in your student’s Class Portal) students have an opportunity to practice under a timed setting, with many of the same prompts and reminders they would receive in an in-person practice test.
But what happens after you’ve taken the test?
Scaled Score vs. Raw Score
After taking the real SHSAT, students will receive a scaled score. This is the product of calculations performed by the Department of Education and its contractors.
The scaling process takes the raw score (the total number of questions answered correctly on each of the ELA and Math sections) and converts it to a scaled score. By doing so, the Department of Education generates a curve, and a student’s score is ranked relative to his/her peers. The process is proprietary, complex, and most importantly for our purposes, not disclosed to the public. In fact, the precise conversion from raw to scaled scores may vary slightly from year to year, depending on the particulars of that year’s testing population, exam, and administration.
Percentile Rank
We provide statistical information to help families understand how a student performed relative to his/her peers. This achieves a similar goal as the scaling process conducted by the Department of Education: to rank students on a relative basis.
To help families understand how their student performed compared with other students who took that test, we provide the student’s percentile rank on each test. This compares one student’s performance against all other students who have taken that test. It is different from the percentage of questions answered correctly. It is also a different comparison than that made by a scaled score: The percentile rank is indicative of performance relative to only to all other Tutorverse students who have taken this exam, which is a very high-achieving and self-selecting population, and is not representative of all 30,000 students taking the test.
Let’s suppose Jeff has just taken an SHSAT practice exam. He correctly answered 20 of 57 total ELA questions. He correctly answered 30 of 57 total Math questions.
- Jeff’s percentage of questions answered correctly is
- 25/57, or 44% for ELA
- 30/57, or 53% for Math
- On this particular SHSAT practice exam, his performance translated to the following percentile ranks might be
- 13 for ELA, meaning Jeff scored higher than 13% of other students (and 87% of other students scored higher than he)
- 41 for Math, meaning Jeff scored higher than 41% of other students (and 59% of other students scored higher than he)
As we can see, percentage of questions answered correctly is not the same thing as percentile rank. On a different test, Jeff may answer more (or fewer) questions correctly, but receive a lower (or higher) percentile rank depending on how other students perform.
Scaled Score Estimations
- We have included estimated scaled scores as a courtesy for interested parents. The conversion from raw to scaled scores is a proprietary process known only to the DOE and its contractors. This estimation is based on internal statistical analyses performed, which compare practice test performance with actual test scores reported to us. Please review our post about Interpreting SHSAT Practice Test Scores (LINKED) for more information on what this means.
- Your scaled score is not a guarantee, but rather what is possible with a lot of hard work and dedication! It can go up or down on subsequent tests based on many factors.
- We have omitted 10 questions of varying difficulty levels from both the ELA and Math sections, so that each section is scaled based on 47 questions. This is to more closely mimic the scaled scoring of the official test. However, the questions that were omitted are not “experimental” as they are on the official test, so all 114 questions each practice test should be reviewed carefully and learned from for next time!
What’s Next?
The raw score on this test should be used as an indicator of areas of strength and areas for growth. Before the next practice test, spend time reviewing those topics where there is room for growth. You can also use your relative performance to help you understand which schools to prioritize in your specialized high schools ranking.
If you attend our classes or work with our tutors, we will use the results of these tests to tailor our lessons, spending time on topics/areas where the students need it most.
Remember, this test should be used for diagnostic purposes only. It does not guarantee any particular result or outcome on the actual test or admissions process.