About the Exams
The
Cooperative Admissions Program (COOP)
and
TACHS
exams are entrance exams that are commonly involved in the process of applying to Catholic schools. As of Fall 2017, the Cooperative Admissions Program uses the HSPT exam for admissions.
About the COOP
The Cooperative Admissions Program (COOP) assists 8th grade students and families seeking admission to Catholic high schools. The COOP exam provides objective information about 8th grade students applying to the high school. In addition to the student’s admission exam results, high schools use the students’ grades from 6th, 7th and 8th grade, along with previous standardized testing results to make admissions decisions for high school admissions. The COOP has used the HSPT exam for all admissions exams since Fall 2017.
About the TACHS
The TACHS is an exam used during the admission process for Catholic high schools in the New York City area.
Learn more about the TACHS on
The Official TACHS Site.
TACHS Format
The TACHS is composed of multiple exams, which cover reading, written expression, mathematics, and ability separately. The reading exam evaluates the factual, interpretive, and evaluative comprehension of students. Students may be required to identify the main idea or purpose of a passage, determine the meaning of a word in context, or answer other similar questions. The written expression exam emphasizes expression using Standard English, addressing the organization, sentence structure, clarity, and efficacy of written expression. The mathematics exam focuses on number sense and operations, algebraic patterns and connections, data analysis (including probability and statistics), geometry, and measurement. The ability exam measures students’ reasoning abilities, assessing their management of spatial and figural content.
Reading | 50 Multi-Choice Questions + 7-8 Passages | 75 Minutes |
Writing Part 1 | 50 Multi-Choice Questions | 55 Minutes |
Writing Part 2 | 1 Text-Based Prompt | 50 Minutes |
Mathematics Part 1 | 40 Multi-Choice Questions | 55 Minutes |
Mathematics Part 2 | 12 Gridded-Response Questions | 50 Minutes |
Science | 47 Multi-Choice Questions + 8 Stimuli | 75 Minutes |
Social Studies | 47 Multi-Choice Questions + 8 Stimuli | 75 Minutes |