Finding a free SHSAT practice test sounds easy. It's not.
There are plenty of results when you Google it. But most of what comes up is sample questions — a few problems from a book, a short quiz, or an old test in a format that doesn't match what students will actually see on test day.
If you want a real, full-length practice test that works the way the actual exam works, the options are much narrower than most people expect.
Here's what's actually out there.
The DOE's Two Official Practice Tests
The NYC Department of Education provides two full-length SHSAT practice tests — Form A and Form B — through the NYC SHSAT Portal. No login needed. Free to use.
These are the real deal. Both tests run on the same platform students will use on test day. Each has 57 ELA questions and 57 Math questions, with three hours to complete both. When you submit, you get a results summary showing which questions you got right and wrong.
The DOE also provides:
That's the full list. Two tests. That's what the DOE offers.
What Happens When You Look Beyond the DOE
This is where things get misleading.
When you search for SHSAT practice tests online, you'll find plenty of links to prep companies — Kaplan, Barron's, ArgoPrep, The Tutorverse. What you'll actually find for free on those sites is a short sample quiz. Kaplan, for example, has a free "pop quiz" with a handful of ELA and Math questions and explanations. Useful for getting a sense of question style. Not a practice test.
The full question banks require purchase. And when you do pay, what you're buying is a prep book — which means a PDF or a physical book of paper-based questions. The new Technology-Enhanced Item (TEI) formats that appear on the digital SHSAT — inline dropdowns, drag-and-drop, multi-select, digital graphing — don't exist in book format. You can't practice them from a PDF.
So here's the real situation: there are exactly two free full-length SHSAT practice tests online (the DOE's), and if you pay for more, you're mostly getting paper questions in a format that doesn't match the digital exam.
For more on why the book-based approach falls short, see why your SHSAT prep book is already outdated.
What About Older Tests?
Some sites, like SHSAT Sunset, host older official SHSAT tests from prior years. The content topics have stayed roughly consistent over time, so older tests can give you extra practice on ELA and Math questions.
But they're paper-based. They don't include digital question types. And they predate the 2025 move to a computer-based format entirely.
Use them for extra content practice if you've already exhausted the official digital tests. Don't use them to get comfortable with the test interface.
The 2026 Format Is Different — And That Matters
Starting Fall 2026, the SHSAT becomes a computer-adaptive test (CAT) for the first time. That changes how the test works in a real way.
In a CAT, the difficulty of each question adjusts based on how you're doing. And unlike the 2025 format — where students could move freely between questions — in 2026, you can't go back. In Math and on stand-alone ELA questions, you answer and move on. You can revisit questions within a reading passage set, but once you submit a section, it's done.
The DOE's official practice tests are built on the actual test platform and are the best thing available for interface familiarity. But the CAT format is new, so no practice test can fully replicate how the adaptive difficulty will feel on the real exam.
This is why knowing your weak topics before test day matters more than it used to.
Two Tests Isn't Enough Volume
The DOE's two tests give you two snapshots of where your child stands. That's useful. But two full-length tests — 228 questions total — isn't enough repetition to build reliable skills, especially on specific topics where errors keep coming up.
The pattern that actually works: take one practice test, figure out which topics are causing the most mistakes, spend 2–3 weeks drilling those specifically, then take the second test. Compare the results.
Students who jump straight from Test 1 to Test 2 without drilling in between almost never see big score improvements — because nothing actually changed in the areas that were broken.
For a step-by-step prep plan that covers this whole cycle, see the complete NYC SHSAT prep checklist.
One More Thing About Scores
A lot of families don't know this: getting one more question right doesn't always add the same number of scaled score points.
The DOE uses a non-linear scoring process. In the middle of the score range, one additional correct answer might add 3–4 scaled score points. Near the top or bottom of the range, it might add 10–20.
So the biggest score gains often come from fixing the errors your child is closest to avoiding — not from tackling the hardest questions. That's a useful thing to keep in mind when reviewing practice test results.
For a full explanation of how raw scores become scaled scores, see how the SHSAT is actually scored.
Where to Start
If your child hasn't taken a full-length practice test yet, start with the DOE's Form A. Use the SRT tutorial first so they're not figuring out the interface during the test.
When they're done, go through every wrong answer and note the topic. That list — not the score — is what drives the next few weeks of prep.
SHSATlab also has a free diagnostic practice test that covers both ELA and Math, gives you a topic-by-topic breakdown, and works the way the digital exam does.