If the air was fraught with some apprehension, perhaps some was called for. The one-and-a-half-hour multiple-choice test, which includes vocabulary, reading comprehension, logical reasoning and mathematics, is the sole determining factor for admission to the city’s three specialized science high schools — Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.
[…]
Board of Education officials expect from 17,000 to 18,000 applicants for the ninth and 10th grade classes at the three science schools next fall. About 5,000 will be accepted, and officials expect about 4,000 of those to enroll.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/09/nyregion/first-high-school-test-getting-in.html