What changed between 2025 and 2026 Practice Test A ELA?

Same six reading passages and the Indoor Plants revising/editing passage — no new passage titles. NYC cut seven ELA questions: one on Snowy Mountains (theme), two on Ravens (paragraph function items), two on Voice in the Wilderness, one on Spirit of the Herd (paragraph 9 structure), and the Pangaea standalone grammar item. Champion (9 questions) and Lowell (7) were unchanged.

Is Practice Test A a new SHSAT practice test?

No. Practice Test A is the same official DOE practice test families have used for years. For 2026, NYC shortened it from 57 to 50 ELA questions (and 57 to 50 Math) by removing seven questions per section. The ELA passages — Snowy Mountains, Ravens, Champion of the Channel, and the rest — are the same titles as before.

Is Practice Test C the same as Practice Test A?

No. Practice Test C is brand-new official material. Both tests have 50 ELA questions on the 2026 portal, but Practice Test A reuses the familiar passage set with fewer questions; Practice Test C has entirely new passages (telegraph history, Niagara Falls, Zitkala-Sa + beadwork timeline, ISS peppers, new poems, and more).

How many ELA questions are on Practice Test A and Practice Test C?

On the 2026 NYC SHSAT Portal, both have 50 ELA questions: reading comprehension first, then a revising/editing passage, then three standalone grammar items. Each full test is 50 ELA + 50 Math (100 total) in 180 minutes. Practice Test A reached 50 by trimming the old 57-question form; Practice Test C was built as a new 50-question test.

Are Practice Test A and Practice Test C the same test?

No. They share the same 50-ELA shell and TestNav interface, but they are not equally new. Practice Test A is the legacy official test with seven fewer ELA questions and the same passages. Practice Test C is new reading material throughout — zero passage-title overlap with Practice Test A.

Which SHSAT practice test is harder — A or C?

Neither is officially labeled harder. Practice Test C has one more reading question and a longer science passage block (10 items vs. 9 on Practice Test A's biography set). Difficulty depends on your child's strengths — use topic-level misses, not total score, to decide.

Do Practice Test A and Practice Test C test the same ELA skills?

Yes. Both tests cover the same SHSAT ELA skill families: central idea, evidence, text structure, inference, author's point of view, word meaning, tone, figurative language, and revising/editing (transitions, relevance, sentence structure). Neither test introduces a new skill category.

Should my child take both Practice Test A and Practice Test C?

Yes. The NYC Department of Education provides both free on the SHSAT Portal. Taking both gives twice the data on weak topics and TEI comfort — especially if your child only prepped on one test and assumes they've 'finished' official practice.

Practice Test C vs. Practice Test A ELA: How the New DOE Test Compares to the Old Official SHSAT Test

The question most parents are actually asking: *"My child already took Practice Test A. Is Practice Test C actually new — or the same thing again?"*

Yes — Practice Test C is genuinely new. Practice Test A is largely the familiar DOE test, just shorter. Practice Test C is the most valuable new ELA practice material NYC released for 2026.

This guide compares ELA only (not Math) across three official forms we mapped from TestNav captures and item-by-item blueprints (2025 Practice Test A at 57 ELA, 2026 Practice Test A at 50, 2026 Practice Test C at 50):

2025 Practice Test A — 57 ELA (legacy portal digital test)

2026 Practice Test A — 50 ELA, same passages, seven questions removed

2026 Practice Test C — 50 ELA, brand-new passages

For navigation rules and Math (also 57 → 50 on A), see Practice Test A: 2025 vs. 2026. For TEI how-tos on Practice Test A, see the Practice Test A & B TEI guide.

First: Three tests, one story (2025 A → 2026 A → 2026 C)

NYC did not add four brand-new practice tests from scratch. Families are really juggling three different ELA forms:

Form	ELA questions	Passages	What changed
2025 Practice Test A	57	Snowy Mountains, Ravens, Voice, Champion, Spirit, Lowell, Indoor Plants	The DOE test many families already used
2026 Practice Test A	50	Same titles as 2025	Seven ELA questions removed — not new reading material
2026 Practice Test C	50	All new titles	Brand-new official ELA — zero overlap with A

Portal note (2026): Practice Test B is also the old test shortened 57 → 50. Practice Test D is new, like C. This article focuses on A vs. C after explaining what NYC cut from 2025 A.

Math: 2025 Practice Test A had 57 Math; 2026 A and 2026 C each have 50 Math. ELA removals below are from our Form A blueprint; Math item-by-item cuts are still being transcribed.

What NYC removed from 2025 Practice Test A ELA (57 → 50)

Bottom line: NYC did not replace Practice Test A’s reading passages for 2026. They trimmed seven ELA slots off the same six RC passages + Indoor Plants block. Champion (9 questions) and Lowell (7) lost nothing. Practice Test C is where new reading material appears.

Per-passage counts: 2025 vs. 2026 Practice Test A

Passage	Genre	2025 A	2026 A	Change
"Snowy Mountains" (John Gould Fletcher)	Poetry	8	7	−1
"The Best Laid Plans of Ravens"	Science journalism	8	6	−2
A Voice in the Wilderness (Grace Livingston Hill)	Fiction	8	6	−2
"Champion of the Channel" (+ data table)	Biography	9	9	0
The Spirit of the Herd (Dallas Lore Sharp)	Fiction	8	7	−1
Lowell National Historical Park	History	7	7	0
The Benefits of Indoor Plants	R/E Part A	5	5	0
Standalone revising/editing	R/E Part B	4	3	−1
ELA total		57	50	−7

The Indoor Plants passage text and five passage-based R/E items are unchanged. Four TEI items remain on 2026 Practice Test A ELA (multi-select poem, quote-sort drag, transition drag, blobfish construction drag) — same TEI count as 2025, not fewer digital formats.

The seven ELA questions NYC removed (2025 → 2026 Practice Test A)

#	2025 Q#	Passage	Skill cut	What stayed instead
1	Q5	Snowy Mountains	Theme — third stanza (lines 15–26)	Poem still has 7 items: central idea, detail, form, multi-select POV, lines 21–22, personification, quote-sort drag
2	Q9	Ravens	How paragraph 1 introduces time/planning	6-item block; new targeted ¶4 evidence item replaces broad old Q10
3	Q10	Ravens	Broad “best supports planning” evidence	Narrower: which sentence from paragraph 4 supports Lund claim
4	Q13	Ravens	Function of paragraph 4 concluding sentence	Phrase effect, experiment evidence, ¶5 structure, author POV, inference
5	Q37	Spirit of the Herd	Paragraph 9 structure	7 fiction skills: Peroxide Jim, setting, phrase meaning, mood, central ideas
6	Q55	Standalone R/E	Pangaea continents — sentence structure	Chorus pronoun, Yalina paired revisions, blobfish construction drag
7–8	Two of Q18–Q24	Voice in the Wilderness	Two of: evidence, simile, plot, imagery, theme, figurative, plot pivot	6 fiction items (was 8); tone on “when all three had taken the trouble to tell her” kept (2025 Q17)

Not removed: Any passage title, Champion’s table question, Lowell’s full block, Indoor Plants R/E, or the TEI families on Practice Test A.

Prep implication: If your child prepped on 2025 question numbers, remap to passage sets on the 2026 portal — numbering restarts inside each passage. A miss on 2025 Q5 theme or Q55 Pangaea may not appear on 2026 A at all; drill those skills on Practice Test C or topic practice instead.

Deeper walkthrough: Practice Test A: 2025 vs. 2026 — every ELA cut.

Quick skill-level summary (2025 → 2026 A)

Passage	What NYC trimmed
Snowy Mountains	One theme MC on stanza 3 — hardest poem TEIs remain
Ravens	Two paragraph-function items; evidence reframed to ¶4 only
Voice in the Wilderness	Two of eight fiction skills (less plot/figurative repetition)
Champion	Nothing — still the longest RC block (9 + table)
Spirit	One ¶9 structure item
Lowell	Nothing
R/E	One standalone (Pangaea grammar) — Indoor Plants untouched

How many ELA questions? (2025 A vs. 2026 A vs. 2026 C)

Section block	2025 Practice Test A	2026 Practice Test A	2026 Practice Test C
Reading comprehension (6 passage sets)	48	42	43
Revising/editing passage (Part A)	5	5	4
Standalone revising/editing (Part B)	4	3	3
Total ELA	57	50	50

2026 A vs. 2026 C (both on the portal today): same 50-question shell, different content. Practice Test A hit 50 by trimming the 57-question form above. Practice Test C was authored as a new 50-question form with new passages.

Time: Standard 180 minutes for the full test (ELA + Math together on the portal). Pace targets about 90 minutes per section if your child splits time evenly — adjust based on diagnostic results.

What passages are on each test?

2025 & 2026 Practice Test A: Same passage titles — Snowy Mountains through Indoor Plants. Only counts changed (57 → 50 ELA).

2026 Practice Test C: Entirely new passages — zero title overlap with Practice Test A.

Practice Test A — ELA passages (2025 → 2026, same titles)

Set	Passage	Genre	2025 A	2026 A
1	Snowy Mountains (John Gould Fletcher)	Literary — poetry	8	7
2	The Best Laid Plans of Ravens	Informational — science	8	6
3	Excerpt from A Voice in the Wilderness	Literary — fiction	8	6
4	Champion of the Channel (+ data table)	Informational — biography	9	9
5	Excerpt from The Spirit of the Herd	Literary — fiction	8	7
6	Lowell National Historical Park	Informational — history	7	7
7	The Benefits of Indoor Plants	R/E Part A	5	5
—	Standalone R/E	R/E Part B	4	3

Practice Test C — ELA passages (2026, all new)

Set	Passage	Genre	Questions
1	The Growth of an Idea (+ telegraph chart/map)	Informational — history/science	6
2	Niagara Falls — Rupert Brooke, Letters from America	Literary — reflective prose	6
3	Zitkala-Sa memoir + Beadwork in South Dakota timeline	Literary + informational (dual text)	7
4	"Bird Talk" — Carl Sandburg	Literary — poetry	6
5	Serpent-mound poem (museum visit, sister Ruth)	Literary — poetry	8
6	Growing Peppers on the ISS (Melanie Canales / WIRED)	Informational — science (+ author bio)	10
7	Hudson Valley brickmaking	R/E Part A	4

Passage-count comparison: 2026 Practice Test A vs. 2026 Practice Test C

Passage slot	2026 A (trimmed legacy)	2026 C (brand-new)	Notes
Set 1	7 (Snowy Mountains poem)	6 (telegraph history)	Different passage
Set 2	6 (Ravens)	6 (Niagara Falls)	Same count, new text
Set 3	6 (Voice fiction)	7 (Zitkala-Sa + beadwork dual text)	C adds paired passages
Set 4	9 (Champion biography + table)	6 (Sandburg poem)	A’s longest RC block unchanged from 2025
Set 5	7 (Spirit fiction)	8 (serpent-mound poem)	C adds second long poem block
Set 6	7 (Lowell history)	10 (ISS peppers science)	C’s heaviest informational set
R/E passage	5 (Indoor Plants)	4 (Hudson Valley brickmaking)	A’s R/E block unchanged 2025→2026
Standalone R/E	3	3	A lost Pangaea (2025 Q55)

What this means for prep:

2025 → 2026 A: Same passages, fewer repeats — especially poetry theme, Ravens ¶1/¶4 function, Wilderness fiction depth, Spirit ¶9 structure, Pangaea grammar.

2026 A → 2026 C: New reading world — dual text, two poems, 10-item science, different TEIs. If your child finished either year of Practice Test A, C is the fresh official ELA.

Champion + Lowell on A are still the blocks that did not shrink from 2025; C replaces biography/table weight with ISS science and more poetry.

Which SHSAT ELA topics get more questions on 2026 A vs. 2026 C?

The 2025 → 2026 A change is mostly fewer questions on the same skills (see removals above), not a new skill mix. The bigger skill-weight shift is between 2026 Practice Test A and 2026 Practice Test C.

SHSATlab maps every miss to 16 ELA skill topics (8 reading + 8 revising/editing) — the same framework used in our 30-skill diagnostic breakdown. Below is how often each skill appears on 2026 A vs. 2026 C (one primary skill per question).

Reading comprehension skills (8 topics)

SHSATlab ELA topic	Practice Test A	Practice Test C	Difference
Central Idea & Theme	7	7	0
Evidence & Support	6	9	+3 on C
Text Structure	10	8	+2 on A
Inference	8	5	+3 on A
Author's Point of View	4	4	0
Word & Phrase Meaning	3	7	+4 on C
Figurative Language & Imagery	4	1	+3 on A
Tone & Mood	2	1	+1 on A

Revising/editing skills (8 topics)

SHSATlab ELA topic	Practice Test A	Practice Test C	Difference
Topic & Transitions	2	1	+1 on A
Relevance & Conclusion	3	2	+1 on A
Word Choice & Precision	0*	1	+1 on C
Sentence Structure	1	2	+1 on C
Pronouns	1	0†	+1 on A
Modifiers	1	0†	+1 on A
Verbs	0	0†	—
Punctuation	0	0†	—

Practice Test A "paired revisions" (Yalina pancakes) maps to **Modifiers** in our taxonomy.

†Practice Test C standalone item 3 of 3 was not fully captured in our review — it likely covers Pronouns, Modifiers, or Punctuation (Practice Test A uses pronoun + modifier + construction on its three standalone items).

Combined takeaway for parents

If your child struggles with…	Take this test first for signal
Evidence, sources, "which sentence supports…"	Practice Test C (9 evidence-style RC hits)
Poetry phrases, line meaning, word impact	Practice Test C (14 poem items across two passages)
Paragraph/sentence role, poem form, tables	Practice Test A (10 text-structure hits + table on Champion)
Figurative language, similes, personification	Practice Test A
"Author would agree" / inference	Practice Test A
Dual passages + timelines	Practice Test C only (Zitkala-Sa + beadwork set)

Bottom line: The skill list does not change between tests — only how many questions stress each skill. One test alone can make a topic look "unimportant" when the next test asks it five more times.

How do TEI and digital question formats compare?

Both tests use TestNav on the NYC SHSAT Portal: A/B/C/D multiple choice, forward-only rules in Math, and Technology-Enhanced Items (TEIs) mixed into ELA.

Format	Practice Test A (ELA)	Practice Test C (ELA)
Multi-select (pick two answers)	1 (poem POV)	2 (ISS evidence + R/E delete-two)
Drag — sort quotes into two boxes	1 (poem)	0
Drag — single chip into one blank	2 (R/E transition + construction)	0
Drag — move two sentences to "delete"	0	1 (brickmaking passage)
Construction error	Drag chip (blobfish)	Multiple choice — pick sentence 1–4 (NBA)
Sentence combine	—	Multiple choice (Jordan rehearsal)

Prep implication: A student who only drilled Practice Test A TEIs still needs to practice delete-two-sentence drag and multi-select on science before Practice Test C. A student who only took Practice Test C should still practice quote-sort drag and transition drag from Practice Test A.

For screenshots and practice links, see SHSAT TEI formats on Practice Test A & B.

What stayed the same — and what did not

Same on both tests (2026 portal shell):

50 ELA questions per test (older Practice Test A materials may still say 57 — see 57 vs. 50 explained).

Reading comprehension first, then revising/editing.

Six reading passage sets before the R/E passage set.

Three standalone grammar questions at the end of ELA.

No guessing penalty — wrong answers do not subtract points.

Same 16 ELA skill families SHSAT schools have tested for years — central idea, evidence, structure, inference, POV, word meaning, tone, figurative language, transitions, relevance, sentence structure, pronouns, modifiers, etc.

Not the same:

Practice Test A = legacy official test, shortened; same passages as prior portal Practice Test A.

Practice Test C = new official test; new passages, different per-set counts, different TEI mix, different skill emphasis.

How should NYC families use all three forms?

Answer: If your child took 2025 Practice Test A (57 ELA), they can retake 2026 Practice Test A (50) for TestNav + timing on familiar passages — but expect seven fewer question types, not new reading. Practice Test C is the must-do for new official ELA. Build the study plan from skills, not from comparing "38 on 57-question A vs. 35 on 50-question C."

Step	Action
1	Take 2026 Practice Test A on the NYC SHSAT Portal — full screen, timed. Same passages as 2025, now 50+50.
2	List every missed ELA question by skill (evidence vs. inference vs. transitions, etc.). Note skills tied to removed 2025 items (theme Q5, Pangaea Q55) — drill those on C or topic practice.
3	Take Practice Test C one to two weeks later — new passages only; this is the test worth doing if A (either year) feels repetitive.
4	Merge miss lists: topics that appear on both tests are top priority.
5	Drill those topics digitally — especially TEIs your child has not seen yet (each test has formats the other lacks).
6	Optional: SHSATlab free diagnostic tags all 30 SHSAT skills (ELA + Math) in one scored report.

Do not average raw scores across tests without context. A miss on Evidence on both tests is worth more study time than a one-time miss on Tone on a single test. Do not assume finishing Practice Test A means your child has "done" official ELA practice — Practice Test C is the new content release.

Key differences at a glance (ELA only)

Dimension	2025 Practice Test A	2026 Practice Test A	2026 Practice Test C
Status	Legacy 57-ELA form	Same test, shortened	Brand-new official form
Passages	Snowy Mountains … Indoor Plants	Same titles	All new — zero overlap with A
Total ELA	57	50 (−7 removals)	50 (new authoring)
RC questions	48	42	43
Longest RC block	Champion (9)	Champion (9)	ISS science (10)
Poetry questions	8 (one poem)	7 (one poem)	14 (two poems)
Dual-text + timeline	No	No	Yes (set 3)
R/E passage items	5 (Indoor Plants)	5 (Indoor Plants)	4 (brickmaking)
TEI count (ELA)	4	4 (same families)	≥3 verified; formats differ
Top skill emphasis	—	Text Structure, Inference, Figurative	Evidence, Word & Phrase
Notable TEI	Quote-sort drag, transition drag	Same as 2025	Delete-two-sentences drag

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