Academic Center Entrance Exam General Information

Applications for Academic Centers are currently open for registration through gocps.edu. Registration applies to current 6th graders seeking enrollment to Academic Centers for the 2025-2026 school year. Students will have the option to choose between several test dates from mid-January to early February.

Academic Centers are selective enrollment middle schools. Upon admittance, students are guaranteed enrollment into each affiliated high school. Academic Centers include the following seven schools: Kenwood, Morgan Park, Lane Tech, Taft, Lindblom, Brooks, and Whitney Young. The most competitive among these are Whitney Young and Lane Tech.

As the application process is highly competitive, students will be scored on a total of 600 points. 300 potential points will be based on a student’s fifth grade final grades in math, science, English, and social studies. An A in any given subject equates to 75 points, a B equates to 50 points, a C equates to 25 points, and a D/F equates to 0 points. The remaining 300 points will be based on their performance on the Academic Center Entrance Exam.

The Academic Center Entrance Exam is a 90-minute test composed of nine sections. The content on the exam is logic-based and requires the use of abstract thought. Each year nine out of ten potential sections are chosen which include the following: verbal classifications, sentence completion, verbal analogies, sentence arrangement, number series, figural series, figural analogies, number puzzles, matrices, and paper folding. Students will have ten minutes to complete each section.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

CPS High School Admissions Test Paused Due to Technical Difficulties

Due to technical difficulties, CPS has delayed High School Admissions Testing for many public schools across the city. In an email today to principals and network leadership, CPS assessment officials stated that many schools were experiencing technical issues with the testing platform.

Some schools were able to access the test with no issues. In email communications, it was indicated that students who finish the test today will be able to use their scores in their GoCPS applications. Any school that experienced difficulties was instructed to stop testing and wait for a rescheduled date, which will be shared “as soon as possible”.

Anna Jordan, Tutoring Coordinator
anna@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266