SHSAT Math Topics to Master Before Test Day

Most SHSAT Math questions depend on fast, accurate work with numbers. Students should be comfortable with:

• Fractions, decimals, and percents, and converting between them.
• Order of operations, including negative numbers and exponents.
• Factors, multiples, prime factorization, greatest common factor, and least common multiple.
• Divisibility rules and remainders.
• Scientific notation and square roots.

Ratio and percent reasoning shows up in many forms, often inside word problems. Students who can set up a ratio table or a proportion quickly have a real advantage.

• Combining like terms and using the distributive property.
• Solving one-step, two-step, and multi-step linear equations.
• Solving and graphing inequalities, including flipping the sign when multiplying or dividing by a negative.
• Writing equations from word problems.
• Slope, linear relationships, and reading graphs of lines.
• Simple systems of equations.

Geometry questions often involve a figure and require more than one formula.

• Angle relationships: supplementary, complementary, vertical angles, and angles formed by parallel lines.
• Triangle angle sums and properties of isosceles and equilateral triangles.
• The Pythagorean theorem and common right-triangle side lengths.
• Area and perimeter of triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, circles, and composite shapes.
• Volume and surface area of rectangular prisms, cylinders, and other solids.
• The coordinate plane, distance, and transformations.

• Mean, median, mode, and range, including how a new data point changes them.
• Probability of single and combined events.
• Counting principles and organized lists.
• Reading tables, bar graphs, line graphs, and other data displays.

Word problems pull all of these topics together. The most reliable approach is to slow down at the start: identify exactly what the question asks, write down the given information, and only then begin calculating. Many wrong answers on SHSAT Math are correct answers to a different question.

• Write each step on scratch paper instead of relying on mental math.
• Underline or note what the question is asking before solving.
• Estimate first so an unreasonable answer stands out.
• Plug answers back into the original problem when time allows.
• Skip a problem that stalls you and return to it later.
• Keep an error log and review it every week.

Start by finding the gaps. A timed diagnostic shows which topics need rebuilding and which only need practice. AhmedPrep offers a free SHSAT diagnostic at our Astoria location, and our free Sunday SHSAT class works through SHSAT Math and ELA problems live each week.

For a broader view of how the test is structured, see how the digital SHSAT works.