Select a Test
Going through the tests is the best way to see what students are expected to learn based on The Ontario Curriculum.
- By clicking one of the four buttons to the left you can download the test and blank multiple-choice answer sheet to try the test yourself.
- Once you’ve completed the test you may review your answers by comparing them to the Multiple-Choice Answer Keys and the sample open-response student answers.
- To understand the scores, click on "How Final Scores are Calculated" at the end of each test section
How are the tests developed?
It takes about three years and 200 educators and assessment experts to create each year's test. The test is
- developed by committees of Ontario educators and assessment experts:
- Item-Writing Committee: composed of curriculum as well as literacy and numeracy experts, who create test questions (items) and pilot test them in their classrooms
- Assessment Development Committee: ensures the test matches curriculum expectations
- Sensitivity Committee: ensures the test questions and reading passages are not biased against any student groups
- Psychometric Expert Panel: composed of national and international experts in the science of assessment, who ensure the validity of the test
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extensively field tested:
- Each year, potential questions for the next year's test are included in assessment booklets and randomly distributed across the province. Students' answers to these questions do not count towards their score, but EQAO evaluates the responses to:
- judge the effectiveness of the question,
- determine whether or not to use it "for real" in the next test and
- provide a benchmark for year-over-year comparability.
- Each year, potential questions for the next year's test are included in assessment booklets and randomly distributed across the province. Students' answers to these questions do not count towards their score, but EQAO evaluates the responses to:
Ongoing research into national and international best practices for large-scale assessment and regular consultation with a panel of experts in the field allows EQAO to deliver on its commitment to offer world-class assessment programs.
About EQAO
EQAO plays an important role in Ontario education by conducting province-wide tests at key points in every student’s primary, junior, and secondary education and by reporting the results. The tests measure student performance in reading, writing and mathematics based on the expectations set out in The Ontario Curriculum.
Results from EQAO testing are an important indicator of student learning and measure achievement in relation to a common provincial standard. The objective and reliable information gained through these assessments adds to the current knowledge about how Ontario students are doing and has become an important tool for improvement planning at the student, school, school board and provincial levels.
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) was established in 1996 based on a recommendation from Ontario’s Royal Commission on Learning in 1995. The all-party Commission consulted extensively with teachers, parents, students and taxpayers. It concluded that province-wide assessments would contribute to greater quality and accountability in the publicly funded school system.