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

An Overview of Kenwood Academy Academic Center

Kenwood Academy Academic Center (also known as Kenwood) is one of seven Academic Centers in Chicago. Kenwood calls Chicago’s Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood its home and has been providing rigorous academics to the south side neighborhood for years. Priding itself as one of the first Academic Centers opened in Chicago Public Schools; Kenwood Academy Academic Center begins in the 7th grade and continues into 8th, promising a “nurturing, small school setting” coupled with an intensive curriculum to prepare its future scholars.

Kenwood Academic Center’s curriculum involves a core set of classes that are only taught by Academic Center educators, with each student taking Academic Center Math, Science, Social Science, and Language Arts. Since each subject is taught only by other Academic Center instructors, students are exposed to a more personalized education than in a regular classroom. These instructors also use web-based instructional tools to provide their students with up to date and accessible course information online. Students are not the only ones who benefit from Kenwood Academic Center’s personalized approach; Kenwood also prioritizes parents by including them in frequent feedback and and student updates by phone, email, and parent meetings with the educators and administrators of the Academic Center. 

Kenwood Academic Center is dedicated to making sure that their students reach their fullest potential by not only providing them with a curriculum that challenges them, but by also providing an abundance of outlets for support for the duration of their program. This includes utilizing teachers, mentors, tutors, and school counselors to achieve the most effective organizational skills for the student and providing consultations from past Kenwood Academic Center alumni in order to ease the transition into the Academic Center. Kenwood Academic Center also offers a variety of extracurricular activities for students to choose from. These include clubs and activities such as Debate, Ivy League club, Poetry club, Anime club, and the traditional offerings of art, band, and sports. 

While Kenwood Academic Center does not have its own website, visit Kenwood Academy’s website to find more information for the Academic Center underneath the Academic Center tab: https://www.kenwoodacademy.org/

Ramisha Ejaz, Tutoring Coordinator
ramisha@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

An Overview of Lane Tech Academic Center

Founded in 1908, Lane Technical College Prep High School (also known as Lane Tech) and Academic Center is situated in Roscoe Village, a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. Though founded many years ago, Lane Tech’s academic center opened in 2011. Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment high schools in Chicago and its academic center is one of seven. Since it’s both a selective enrollment high school and academic center, students enrolled in Lane’s academic center are automatically enrolled in Lane Tech’s high school program without needing to reapply.

Much like at other academic centers, students enrolled are considered gifted and can gain high school credit for classes as well as work on material that is 1-2 years advanced. Moreover, Lane Tech’s website describes their academic center as providing “an advanced curriculum for students beginning in the 7th grade and culminates with a capstone advanced placement college preparatory experience.”

Furthermore, as early as their 7th-grade year, students at Lane Tech Academic Center begin receiving high school credit for classes like algebra, biology, global issues, and electives such as world language, art, music, or computer science. As students progress to high school, all academic center students at Lane are expected to take either Honor or Advanced Placement courses, though, still must meet all regular prerequisites in place by course instructors and departments. This puts students on track to already be taking AP courses (that may count for college credit) during their freshman year of high school.

In addition to academics, Lane Tech Academic Center also offers extracurriculars students would find at any other elementary school. Sports offered include cross country, track, basketball, soccer, and cheerleading to name a few. There are also clubs which include but are not limited to student council, math team, yearbook, chess, and the National Junior Honor Society.

To find out more about Lane Tech Academic Center’s courses or extracurriculars, visit their website: https://lanetech.org/ltac/.

Lauren Lynch, Tutoring Coordinator
lauren@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266