About this app
Free, offline-first practice for the CPS High School Admissions Test. Built by a parent for kids in Chicago Public Schools.
About the test
The CPS HSAT is administered by Riverside Assessments in October of 8th grade. It is 60 minutes total: 30 minutes Reading (40 questions) followed by 30 minutes Math (30 questions, no calculator). All questions are multiple choice. There is no penalty for wrong answers — always answer.
Your HSAT raw score is converted to a percentile, then to points using the formula percentile × 2.2727 (max 225 per section). Together with your 7th-grade core grades, the total is on a 900-point scale (450 HSAT + 450 grades).
Methodology
Questions are original or adapted from public-domain state assessments (NYSED, Massachusetts MCAS, Illinois IAR, Smarter Balanced) aligned to 8th-grade Common Core State Standards. Vocabulary is curated from frequency lists used by major test-prep providers.
Spaced repetition follows the SM-2 algorithm (the basis of Anki), proven to roughly double long-term retention compared to massed study.
Privacy
Everything you do in this app stays on your device, in your browser's storage. We do not run a backend, we do not collect telemetry, we do not have analytics. There are no accounts and no logins.
If you uninstall the app or clear your browser site data, your progress is gone. To keep progress on multiple devices, use the same browser profile or take screenshots of your dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
October of 8th grade. CPS students typically take it during the school day; non-CPS students take it on weekends at testing centers in October.