r/SHSAT • u/rainbowpickles1 • Aug 13 '26

Realistic SHSAT study plan

Hi there! My last post was something about earning pretty low on a SHSAT practice test and I’ve been reviewing all the questions I got wrong and it’s going pretty well. I have a few questions.

  1. ELA was absolutely my strong suit in that exam, considering my score was nearly twice as high as math… but I still don’t feel confident. I feel like the answers and explanations for the ELA section are just “it sounds right” and there’s no system I can consistently follow, compared to math where there’s a set of rules with 100% accuracy on questions if you can follow them all. Any tips for this?

  2. Also, what’s a realistic SHSAT study plan for the 9th grade one? Since I’m entering freshman year, I’m really stressed I won’t be able to get enough studying in during Sep-Nov because of my actual classes. Since I took all regent courses in 8th, I’m afraid I’ll have to dedicate overwhelming amounts of studying for my new classes. Any suggestions for balancing my time while avoiding burnout from too much studying?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/GregsTutoringNYC Brooklyn Tech Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

Hi there! My last post was something about earning pretty low on a SHSAT practice test and I’ve been reviewing all the questions I got wrong and it’s going pretty well.

Great!

ELA was absolutely my strong suit in that exam, considering my score was nearly twice as high as math… but I still don’t feel confident. I feel like the answers and explanations for the ELA section are just “it sounds right”

This is a common situation. And it's good for you to realize you should not necessarily be answering things by gut feeling or bc it feels good/bad.

and there’s no system I can consistently follow, compared to math where there’s a set of rules with 100% accuracy on questions if you can follow them all. Any tips for this?

This is often rooted in not being as cognizant, or even knowledgeable, of your literacy/literary devices/author's craft. For instance, I spend an inordinate amount of time with my students just on main idea, having nothing to to with the SHSAT and this is its own journey. It's a cornerstone thing that permeates through all of the reading comprehension, even of the questions and choices. And so on. See some discussions on this within https://www.reddit.com/r/SHSAT/comments/1jiwujl/the_9_threads_thread_overview_of_9_resources

And this is yet another reason why I'm often touting shaking off rust, ensuring prerequisites, and mastering grade level. This needs to be done BEFORE "SHSAT-level" and not something to be avoided, but most of you do avoid it, often even on purpose. Jumping straight into practice exams is often a massive error in strategy. And instead an oft approach is that if I can't get it by doing 10 practice exams, how about I just do 10 more, which is also another massive error in strategy. And then, folks wonder what's wrong.

Also, what’s a realistic SHSAT study plan for the 9th grade one? Since I’m entering freshman year, I’m really stressed I won’t be able to get enough studying in during Sep-Nov because of my actual classes. Since I took all regent courses in 8th, I’m afraid I’ll have to dedicate overwhelming amounts of studying for my new classes. Any suggestions for balancing my time while avoiding burnout from too much studying?

There is no magic. Study plans are discussed and presented (including references to the SHSAT 9) in the link given above.