Getting testy over elite-HS exams

Don’t mess with the test. Specializedhighschool students, parents and alumni chided the de Blasio administration Thursday for considering changes to their institutions’ entrance exams.

“To mess with the admissions policy jeopardizes the value of those schools,” said grocerystore magnate and Brooklyn Tech alum John Catsimatidis.

“The students who really want to attend these schools should get additional Saturday tutoring,” the former mayoral candidate added.

A parent of specialized-school students agreed.

“Right now, it’s a very simple exam and a very simple way of doing things,” said Brooklyn Tech alum Stanley

To meess with the admissions policy jeopardizes the value of thos se schools. — Grocerystore magnate John Catsimatidis, a graduate of Brooklyn Technical HS

Ng, who has three kids attending elite city high schools.

“The problem is not the exam; the problem is that kids are coming in totally unprepared to take the exam.”

Bronx Science alum Michael Benjamin, a former state assemblyman, said the city must focus on improving middle schools in black and Latino neighborhoods before altering the exam.

“Changing the test will not improve the outcomes for those students,” he said.

The Department of Education this week asked testing companies to redesign the single test that determines who gets into the city’s eight specialized, toprated high schools.

The exam is taken by 30,000 students each year.

One change might be the inclusion of an essay — which might make scoring more subjective — and a requirement that questions be linked to seventh and eighthgrade Common Core class instruction.

That would remove the advantage of students who take private testprep courses that ready them for questions that sometimes don’t come up in class.

The exam is also being translated into 12 languages.

Students at the competitive high schools said they were puzzled by the proposed overhaul.

Brooklyn Tech freshman Anna Vas, 14, said an essay would be “annoying.”

“We had three hours to take the test and some people barely finished,” she said. “With an essay, the grading would be more opinionated.”

Mayor de Blasio has vowed to increase diversity at the city’s top high schools by expanding entrance requirements beyond a single admissions test.

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña downplayed the possible test changes as a “routine RFP,” or request for proposals.