Revising/Editing (Grammar & Flow)
This type of punctuation mark should be used to link two independent clauses that are closely related in thought without using a coordinating conjunction like and or but.
What is a semicolon?
When a question asks you to identify why an author included a specific paragraph or sentence, it is asking you to determine this.
What is the author's purpose (or function)?
This is the numerical value of $x$ when solving the algebraic equation:
What is 7?
This is the total sum of all interior angles inside any standard Euclidean triangle.
What is 180 degrees?
This is the total amount of time, in minutes, that a standard tester has to complete the entire SHSAT exam.
What is 180 minutes (or 3 hours)?
This grammatical error occurs when a modifier is placed so far from the word it modifies that the sentence becomes illogical, such as: "Walking down the street, the skyscraper looked massive."
What is a dangling modifier? (The skyscraper wasn't walking down the street!)
These types of extreme answer choices on the ELA section—often containing absolute words like always, never, completely, or everyone—are almost always incorrect.
What are absolute (or extreme) statements?
To find the original price of an item that now costs $60 after a 20% discount, you would divide 60 by this decimal.
What is 0.8? Note: The original price is $75.
This statistical term refers to the value that appears most frequently in a given data set.
What is the mode?
Because the SHSAT is now a computer-adaptive test, the exam adjusts in real-time, meaning that doing well on a question has this effect on the next question.
What is making the next question harder (increasing the difficulty)?
When combining sentences on the SHSAT, this primary stylistic goal ensures the new sentence does not repeat words or contain unnecessary fluff.
What is conciseness (or avoiding redundancy)?
This reading strategy involves looking at the first and last sentences of paragraphs to capture the core argument before diving deep into the text.
What is skimming (or mapping the passage)?
If a map uses a scale where 0.5 inches = 10miles, this is the actual distance represented by 3.5 inches.
What is 70 miles?
This theorem, expressed as a^2 + b^2 = c^2, allows you to find the missing side length of any right triangle.
What is the Pythagorean Theorem?
Because the adaptive format requires you to submit an answer to see the next item, this traditional paper-test strategy is completely gone for Math and standalone ELA questions.
What is skipping a question and coming back to it later?
In the sentence "Neither the teacher nor the students (is/are) ready for the exam," this specific grammatical rule dictates that the verb must agree with "students."
What is the rule of proximity (or subject-verb agreement with correlative conjunctions)? Note: The correct verb is "are".
To correctly answer an inference question, your conclusion must be 100% supported by this, rather than your own outside knowledge or personal assumptions.
Answer: What is direct textual evidence?
This mathematical term describes the steepness of a line and is calculated using the formula:
Ms.Thomas will write this on the board
What is slope?
To find the volume of a right cylinders, you use this geometric formula.
What is V = pi r^2 h?
Out of the 114 total questions on the exam, this is the exact number of questions that are "experimental" or unscored field-test items.
What is 20 (10 in ELA, 10 in Math)?
These specific words, such as however, therefore, and consequently, are used to establish a logical relationship between sentences or paragraphs.
What are conjunctive adverbs (or transition words)?
The SHSAT reading section features exactly six passages. Three to four are informational, one or two are literary, and exactly one will always be this specific genre.
What is a poem (or poetry)?
This is the value of $x$ in the following inequality, keeping in mind the rule about multiplying or dividing by a negative number:
What is x > -3?
In a probability experiment involving two independent events—such as flipping a coin and rolling a six-sided die—you perform this mathematical operation on the individual probabilities to find the joint probability.
What is multiplication?
These interactive digital questions require you to choose options from drop-down menus, click a "hot spot" on an image, or move answers into place rather than just picking A, B, C, or D.
What are Technology-Enhanced Items (or TEIs)?