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 Morgan Park Academic Center

Morgan Park Academic Center (also known as Morgan Park) resides in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood and is situated on the south side of Chicago. Similar to the other six Academic Centers, Morgan Park Academic Center is made up of 7th and 8th graders. Morgan Park offers their students the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) curriculum. In doing so, Morgan Park Academic Center is able to thoroughly prepare its students for their future academic endeavors. Upon completion, students are automatically accepted into the 9th grade IB MYP Cohort at Morgan Park High School.

To elaborate, Morgan Park’s International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme allows students to take 9th grade level curriculum which in turn allows the students the opportunity to earn high school credits. Therefore, when students are entering their high school years, they are better advantaged to enroll in Advanced Placement (AP) and dual credit courses during their later years. Additionally, students are assigned a dedicated counselor specifically for Academic Center students and their counselor remains with them until they enter the 9th grade. This is also supplemented by Student Academic and Social Supports for continued, consistent support during their 7th and 8th grade years. 

Morgan Park Academic Center lets students choose between studying Spanish or French coupled with an elective course of either band or chorus through their duration of 7th and 8th grade years. Students are also encouraged to participate in clubs and select sports programs such as NJHS, Student Council, Boys & Girls Basketball, Girls Volleyball, Flag Football, etc. Transportation is also provided to students who live more than 1.5 miles away from Morgan Park Academic Center. 

To find more information for Morgan Park Academic Center, please visit Morgan Park High School’s website and click the Academic Center tab: https://morganparkcps.org/

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