What Score Do You Need to Get Into Brooklyn Tech in 2026?

What Score Do You Need to Get Into Brooklyn Tech in 2026?

Based on the most recent 2025 admissions cycle, Brooklyn Technical High School's cutoff was a 505 composite SHSAT score. Brooklyn Tech is the largest specialized high school by a wide margin, with 1,403 offers in 2025, which is why its cutoff sits well below the more selective schools. For the 2026 cycle, plan to score in the 515 to 525 range to be safely above the cutoff.

This guide covers what 505 means in raw score terms, how the cutoff has moved over the past six years, and how Brooklyn Tech's size and major system make it a fundamentally different school from Stuyvesant or Bronx Science.

The Short Answer

• 2025 cutoff: 505 composite
• 2026 target range: 515 to 525 (10 to 20 points above last year's cutoff)
• What 505 means in practice: approximately 78 to 81% of the 114 scored questions correct
• Offers in 2025: 1,403 out of 25,933 testers (over a third of all offers citywide)
• Approximate seats: ~1,490
• SHSAT format in 2026: computer-adaptive (CAT)

If you are currently scoring in the high 400s in practice, Brooklyn Tech is a realistic and achievable target. The 505 cutoff is the most accessible of the more competitive schools, and the large incoming class means you have a meaningful number of seats to compete for.

2025 Cutoff at a Glance

For context on where 505 sits, here is the 2025 cutoff for all eight specialized high schools:

See our complete 2026 SHSAT cutoff analysis for the full picture, or our specialized high schools comparison guide for the school-by-school breakdown.

How Brooklyn Tech's Cutoff Has Moved (2020 to 2025)

Brooklyn Tech's cutoff has been the steadiest of all eight specialized high schools. The school has more seats than anyone else, so the cutoff moves less in response to preference shifts or tester pool size. Here is the year-by-year picture:

The 2021 dip to 493 is the COVID year, and the school has otherwise stayed in a 503 to 507 band. This stability is a real advantage for test-takers: you can plan around a known target more confidently than you can for schools with more volatile cutoffs.

The practical takeaway: 505 is the floor, and 520 gives you meaningful margin. Plan around 520 as your working target.

What "Competitive" Means for Brooklyn Tech

Cutoffs are floors. The student who scores exactly 505 in 2026 has qualified, but they have not built in any margin. Even at Brooklyn Tech's relatively stable cutoff, 3 to 5 points of year-to-year movement is the norm.

Our recommended targeting framework for 2026:

• Bare minimum to qualify: 505 (last year's cutoff)
• Comfortable competitive score: 515 to 520 (10 to 15 points above)
• Comfortable with safety margin: 535+ (20+ points above)

For most students, hitting 520 requires a 15 to 20 point improvement from a high-400s starting point. That is achievable in 3 to 6 months of focused prep.

How SHSAT Scoring Actually Works

The composite score the DOE reports is the sum of two scaled section scores: ELA and Math. Here is the path from your answer sheet to 505:

1. Raw score. Count of correct answers per section (out of 57). Wrong and blank answers both count as zero, so answer every question.
2. Scaled score. The DOE applies a nonlinear transformation per section. The curve is steeper in the middle, so a few extra correct questions in the middle of the range can move your score several points.
3. Composite score. Scaled ELA plus scaled Math. The maximum is around 700.

At the 505 level, the scaling curve is in its steeper middle range, which means a few additional correct questions can move you up faster than they would at the very top of the range. Our SHSAT scoring strategy guide walks through the math.

For Fall 2026, the test becomes computer-adaptive. The DOE has said scores will remain comparable to prior years. See our 2026 adaptive test guide for what is changing.

Estimated Raw Score for 505

The SHSAT scoring formula is not public, but based on historical scaling patterns, a 505 composite typically requires:

• Around 89 to 92 correct out of 114 scored questions, or roughly 78 to 81% accuracy
• Balanced performance between ELA and Math is the most common path, though a strong one-sided performance is viable

These are estimates, not guarantees. The conversion shifts slightly year to year, and 10 of the 114 questions are unscored field-test items. Treat every question as if it counts.

What Makes Brooklyn Tech Different

Brooklyn Tech is the gateway specialized high school. With the most seats and one of the lowest cutoffs among the top schools, it offers the most realistic path into the specialized high school system for the most students.

But "most accessible" is not "easy." A 505 cutoff still means you need to outperform roughly 84% of test-takers. What you get when you walk through the door is genuinely impressive: a massive STEM-focused school with 18 engineering and science majors that students select in their sophomore year. The major system is unique among specialized high schools. Students pick from areas like aerospace engineering, biomedicine, computer science, electrical engineering, and architecture, and they take major-specific courses in their junior and senior years.

The 2025 admit profile was the most diverse of the eight schools in absolute numbers: 691 Asian, 422 White, 137 multiracial, 102 Hispanic, and 51 Black students. For a school with 1,400+ students, those numbers mean meaningful demographic variety that smaller schools cannot match.

Brooklyn Tech is also the only specialized high school that has been studied specifically for its marginal return. A Harvard/MIT study found that students at the admissions margin of Brooklyn Tech were actually 2.3 percentage points less likely to graduate from a four-year college than comparable students who just missed the cutoff. That is a real finding, and it is worth understanding: the school is excellent, but it is not a magic ticket. The education you get depends on the work you put in.

For students considering other schools, see our guides for Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Latin.

How to Actually Hit 515+ in 2026

If you want to score 515 to 525 and get into Brooklyn Tech, the work starts now. The Fall 2026 SHSAT is in late October or early November, which gives you a real prep window if you begin between March and June 2026. Here is what a serious 12-week plan looks like, modeled on our SHSAT study plan guide.

A Sample 12-Week Weekly Plan

This is the structure that consistently produces 20 to 40 point score improvements. Adapt it to your starting point: a 3-month timeline is fine if you are already in the high 400s; a 6-month timeline is safer if you are starting in the low 400s.

Difficulty progression: start with medium-difficulty questions for the first 4 weeks, shift to hard for weeks 5 to 8, then take one full mock exam every Saturday in weeks 9 to 12. You should be scoring 80%+ on medium-difficulty questions across all subtopics by week 6.

Start Prepping Now

The fastest way to fall behind on the SHSAT is to wait until September. Students who begin in March or April arrive at the November test with content mastery, test-day stamina, and digital-format fluency. Students who start in September arrive anxious and underprepared. The 6-month head start is the single biggest predictor of score improvement.

For the full week-by-week schedules (3-month, 6-month, and 12-month timelines), see our SHSAT study plan guide. It includes monthly milestones, mock exam protocol, and a difficulty-progression chart.

What SHSPrep Gives You

To hit the 515+ range for Brooklyn Tech, you need practice that mirrors the real test. SHSPrep is built for exactly this:

• 3,100+ SHSAT-aligned practice questions across 42 subtopics (22 math, 20 ELA), calibrated to the actual digital format
• 10 full-length mock exams with the 12 digital question types built in, including drag-and-drop, multi-select, and grid-in
• Adaptive practice that matches the new Fall 2026 computer-adaptive format, so you build the no-going-back discipline the real test demands
• Per-subtopic progress tracking that shows exactly where you are strong, where you are losing points, and what to focus on next
• A 2-week starter study plan (free, no signup) if you want to build the daily habit before committing

Start with a free mock exam on SHSPrep to see where you stand today. Most students are surprised by how much room there is to improve in just the first 4 to 6 weeks of focused practice.

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Keep Reading

• SHSAT Study Plan: Week-by-Week for 3, 6, 12 Months
• What Score Do You Need to Get Into Bronx Science?
• 2026 SHSAT Cutoff Scores for Every Specialized High School
• Specialized High Schools Comparison Guide

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