SHSAT Study Plan: Week-by-Week for 3, 6, and 12 Months

The question every family asks: "When should we start preparing?" The honest answer: it depends on where your child is starting from. A student reading two grade levels ahead and comfortable with algebra needs a different timeline than a student who struggles with fractions and inference questions.

What the research tells us: 20-30 hours of focused preparation correlates with a 20-30 point score improvement. But "focused" is the operative word. Thirty hours of unfocused review does far less than twenty hours of targeted, strategic practice.

Our platform contains 3,178 practice questions across 42 subtopics (22 math, 6 Revising/Editing, 14 Reading Comprehension), 160 lessons across 40 units, and 10 full-length mock exams with 114 questions each. The study plans below map out exactly how to use these resources at three different timelines.

Before choosing a plan, take a diagnostic. Our mock exams serve as ideal diagnostics: take one full test under timed conditions, score it, and use the results to identify your weakest areas. Then pick the plan that matches your available preparation time.

The 12-Month Plan: Starting June Before 8th Grade

This is the gold standard. A full year gives you time to build skills from the ground up, develop test-taking stamina, and arrive at the November test with confidence rather than anxiety. Total commitment: approximately 250-300 hours.

Months 1-3 (June - August): Foundation Phase

Daily commitment: 45 minutes, 5 days per week

Goal: Complete all 160 lessons across 40 units. Understand the concepts before you start practicing questions.

Weekly breakdown:

• Monday/Wednesday: Math lessons (22 subtopics to cover)
• Tuesday/Thursday: ELA lessons (R/E grammar rules + RC strategies)
• Friday: Review the week's lessons, take notes on confusing concepts

Math focus: Work through all 22 subtopics systematically. Start with number system fundamentals (integers, fractions, decimals), then move to algebra, ratios, geometry, and statistics. Our lesson structure follows this natural progression.

ELA focus: Learn the 10 grammar rules that appear on every SHSAT. Read one practice passage per session and answer questions untimed. Focus on building the habit of finding text evidence for every answer.

End of Phase 1 checkpoint: You should be able to name every major topic the SHSAT tests and feel comfortable with the concepts, even if you cannot solve hard problems yet.

Months 4-6 (September - November): Targeted Practice Phase

Daily commitment: 60 minutes, 5 days per week

Goal: Work through all 42 subtopics in targeted practice. Start with your weakest areas (identified by the diagnostic mock exam you took before starting).

Weekly breakdown:

• Monday: Math - weakest subtopic (focus fire)
• Tuesday: RC - inference questions (most tested at 254 questions, hardest with 88 rated hard)
• Wednesday: Math - second weakest subtopic
• Thursday: RC - detail/evidence questions (second most tested at 249 questions, much easier)
• Friday: R/E practice - rotate through all 6 subtopics

Difficulty progression: Start with easy-difficulty questions. Our bank has approximately 20 easy questions per math subtopic and a weighted distribution across ELA. Easy questions build confidence and reinforce fundamentals. You are not "wasting time" on easy questions; you are building the foundation that harder questions build upon.

Target volume: 15-20 questions per session. Over three months, that is roughly 1,200-1,600 questions, covering the majority of our question bank at easy and medium difficulty.

End of Phase 2 checkpoint: You should be scoring 70%+ on medium-difficulty questions across all subtopics. Weak areas should be identified clearly.

Months 7-9 (December - February): Mock Exam Phase

Daily commitment: 75 minutes, 5 days per week

Goal: Take one full mock exam per week. Deep-review every wrong answer. Focus on the two most impactful areas: inference questions (ELA) and word problems (math).

Weekly breakdown:

• Monday: Math practice (hard difficulty)
• Tuesday: RC practice (hard difficulty, emphasis on inference and author's purpose)
• Wednesday: Math practice (mixed difficulty, emphasis on word problems)
• Thursday: ELA practice (R/E + RC mixed)
• Friday: Review wrong answers from the week
• Saturday (every other week): Full mock exam under timed conditions

Mock exam protocol: Take the exam in a quiet space. Time it. No phone. No breaks beyond what the real test allows. After scoring, review every wrong answer the same day. For each wrong answer, identify: Did I not know the content? Did I misread the question? Did I make a careless error? Categorize mistakes to target your remaining study time.

Our 10 mock exams include all 12 digital question types (multiple choice, grid-in, drag-and-drop, inline choice, matrix sort, multi-select, and more). Familiarize yourself with every format. See our digital question types guide for details.

End of Phase 3 checkpoint: You should be scoring consistently above your target cutoff on mock exams. For context: Brooklyn Latin's 2025 cutoff was 496, Brooklyn Tech's was 505, Bronx Science's was 518, and Stuyvesant's was 556. See our full cutoff score analysis.

Months 10-12 (March - May): Polish Phase

Daily commitment: 60 minutes, 5 days per week

Goal: Retake mock exams to confirm consistency. Target 530+ across multiple tests. Focus on digital question types and test-day logistics.

Weekly breakdown:

• Monday/Wednesday: Math - rotate through all subtopics at hard difficulty
• Tuesday/Thursday: ELA - full passages with all question types
• Friday: Digital question type practice or review
• Saturday (twice per month): Full mock exam

Focus areas:

• Grid-in questions: no answer choices means no safety net. See our grid-in guide.
• Poetry passages: the hardest RC content. See our poetry strategy guide.
• Time management: practice finishing sections with 5 minutes to spare for review.

Summer Before the Test (June - October): Final Push

Daily commitment: 60-90 minutes, 6 days per week

Goal: Simulate real test conditions weekly. Build mental stamina. Lock in strategies.

• Take remaining mock exams you have not used yet
• Retake previously completed exams to confirm improvement
• Practice the digital interface on the DOE's Student Readiness Tool (srt.testnav.com/ny-shsat)
• Read our test day preparation guide the week before the test

The 6-Month Plan: Starting May or June

For families starting in late spring or early summer, six months is still a strong preparation window. Total commitment: approximately 150-180 hours.

Month 1: Diagnostic and Foundation

Daily commitment: 60 minutes, 5 days per week

• Take a diagnostic mock exam. Score it. Identify your 10 weakest subtopics.
• Complete lessons for those 10 weakest subtopics only. Skip subtopics where you scored well on the diagnostic.
• Begin easy-difficulty practice on weak areas.

Months 2-3: Targeted Practice on All Subtopics

Daily commitment: 60 minutes, 6 days per week

• Work through all 42 subtopics, prioritizing math. Math has a higher improvement ceiling than ELA for most students because the concepts are more learnable in a short timeframe. Reading comprehension skills build more slowly.
• Complete medium-difficulty questions across all subtopics.
• Begin integrating R/E grammar practice. The 10 grammar rules are finite and memorizable.

Weekly structure:

• Mon/Wed/Fri: Math (two subtopics per session)
• Tue/Thu: ELA (one RC passage + one R/E practice set)
• Saturday: Mixed review or catch-up

Month 4: Weekly Mock Exams

• Take one full mock exam every Saturday.
• Review wrong answers Sunday.
• Weekday practice targets the errors from each exam.
• Start hard-difficulty questions on your strongest subtopics.

Month 5: ELA Deep Dive

• Focus on inference questions (254 in our bank, most tested AND hardest) and detail/evidence questions (249, second most tested). Together, these 503 questions represent nearly half of all RC content.
• Practice with all passage types: nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
• Continue weekly mock exams.

Month 6: Digital Format and Final Exams

• Take remaining mock exams under strict timed conditions.
• Practice all 12 digital question types.
• Review the test day guide.
• Practice on the DOE Student Readiness Tool for interface familiarity.

The 3-Month Plan: Starting August

Three months is an emergency sprint. It works, but it demands intensity. Total commitment: approximately 90-120 hours, with no wasted sessions.

Week 1: Diagnostic

• Take a full diagnostic mock exam. This is non-negotiable. You do not have time to study everything, so you must know exactly what to focus on.
• Score it. Rank your subtopics from weakest to strongest. Identify your top 5 weakest areas.

Weeks 2-6: Focused Attack on Weak Areas

Daily commitment: 90 minutes minimum, every day

• Skip lessons. Go straight to questions. At this timeline, you learn by doing, not by studying.
• Work through your 5 weakest subtopics first, using targeted practice.
• Start with medium difficulty (skip easy - you do not have time to ramp up gradually).
• 25-30 questions per session.

Weekly structure:

• Mon/Wed: Math weak areas
• Tue/Thu: ELA weak areas (prioritize inference and detail/evidence)
• Fri: R/E grammar (cover all 10 rules in two weeks)
• Sat: Timed section practice (half a mock exam)
• Sun: Review all wrong answers from the week

Weeks 7-9: Mock Exam Blitz

• Take a full mock exam every 3 days.
• Review wrong answers the same day you take each exam. Not the next day. The same day. Fresh recall makes error analysis far more effective.
• Between exams, target the specific question types you keep getting wrong.

Weeks 10-12: Final Timed Practice and Mental Prep

• Take remaining mock exams under strict test conditions.
• Practice the digital interface (DOE Student Readiness Tool).
• No new content. Review only. Reinforce what you know.
• Daily: 90 minutes minimum. No days off the last month.
• Read the test day preparation guide during the final week.

The Weekly Template (Works for Any Timeline)

Regardless of which plan you follow, this weekly structure optimizes learning:

Why this structure works:

• Alternating math and ELA prevents burnout on either subject
• Saturday mock exams build stamina and simulate test conditions
• Sunday review is the most underrated element: analyzing mistakes is where real improvement happens

Difficulty Progression: When to Level Up

Our question bank contains 923 easy questions, 1,590 medium questions, and 665 hard questions. Here is when to use each level:

The rule of thumb: If you are scoring 80%+ at a difficulty level, move up. If you are below 60%, you moved up too fast. Drop back down and reinforce.

Adapting for the Fall 2026 Adaptive Test

The upcoming Fall 2026 SHSAT becomes computer-adaptive for the first time. This changes how you practice time management.

On the previous format, you could manage time by section: allocate X minutes for ELA, Y minutes for math, and move between questions freely. On the adaptive format, you work through questions sequentially and cannot go back. Time management shifts from per-section to per-question.

What this means for your study plan:

• Practice answering questions in order without skipping
• Build the habit of making a decision on each question within a set time limit (roughly 1.5 minutes for MC, 2 minutes for grid-in)
• Get comfortable with the possibility that some questions will be harder than others - that is the adaptive algorithm working, not a sign you are failing

Our mock exams build this discipline naturally. Each exam presents 114 questions in the order you would encounter them on the real test, with all 12 digital question types integrated throughout. For a full breakdown of the adaptive format changes, see our 2026 adaptive test guide.

What If You Are Starting Now?

If you are reading this in March 2026, you have approximately 8 months before the Fall 2026 test. That puts you between the 6-month and 12-month plans. Here is a customized approach:

March-May (3 months): Follow the 12-month plan's Foundation Phase, but compressed. Complete lessons on your weakest 15 subtopics (skip what you already know). Take the diagnostic mock exam immediately.

June-August (3 months): Follow the Targeted Practice Phase. Work through all subtopics at medium difficulty. Take a mock exam at the end of each month.

September-November (3 months): Follow the Mock Exam Phase and Polish Phase combined. Weekly mock exams, hard-difficulty practice, and digital format work.

For a broader view of how the SHSAT fits into the 2026 admissions cycle, see our registration and timeline guide.

The Non-Negotiables

Regardless of your timeline, three things must happen:

1. Take at least 3 full mock exams under timed conditions. Nothing else replicates the endurance and pressure of the real test. Our platform has 10 mock exams available.

2. Review every wrong answer. Not just "oh, the answer was C." Understand why you chose the wrong answer and why the correct answer is right. Our common mistakes analysis helps with this.

3. Practice on a digital platform. The SHSAT is a digital test. Paper practice builds content knowledge but does not build interface familiarity. Use SHS Prep or the DOE Student Readiness Tool.

Ready to begin? Start with a diagnostic mock exam, identify your weak areas, and pick the plan that matches your timeline. With 3,178 questions across 42 subtopics, you have everything you need to prepare systematically, not frantically.

For additional study strategies, see our guides on how to study for the SHSAT and SHSAT scoring strategy. Understanding how the test is scored can help you prioritize which sections to focus on within your study plan.