OSSLT

The Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is scheduled

 for Thursday, April 2, 2009

Test Description:

A provincial test of reading and writing skills that students have acquired by Grade 10.   There are two test booklets and one student answer sheet.  The test lasts for 2.5 hours.

• Reading Booklet: informational reading selections, narrative (story and dialogue), and graphic (interpreting a graph or another visual).  There are multiple choice and open-response questions (6 lines each).
• Writing Booklet: students write two long tasks: a one page news report and a two page essay expressing an opinion.  There are also short writing tasks (6 lines each).  Multiple choice questions centre around grammar rules (punctuation and capitalization ) and writing structure.

Tips for Test Success - Preparation:

1. Get a good night's sleep the night before the test.
2. Bring sharpened pencils and 2 blue or black pens.  You must use pencils to fill in the answer sheets for multiple choice questions.  You must use pens to complete written responses. 
3. Drink water to help keep you alert.
4. Eat a good breakfast the morning of the test.

Tips for Test Success - Writing the Test:  Try all Questions on the Test!

1. Multiple Choice Questions:
   1. Record on the Student Answer Sheet.
   2. Use a pencil to fill in the circle completely.
   3. To change an answer, erase and fill in the circle for your new answer.  Make sure it's darker than the circle you erased.
   4. Read the question carefully and see if you know the answer before looking at the choices.
   5. Read the four answers carefully.  Rule out answers you know are incorrect.
   6. Reread parts of the selection, if necessary, in order to choose the best answer.
2. Open Response Questions- writing answers to questions: Use pen!
   1. Read the question carefully.
   2. Answer the question by using details and information (examples) from the reading selection.
3. Short and Long Writing Tasks: Use pen!
   1. This is probably the greatest area of difficulty and the main thing is to keep at it.  Give specific details (examples) and relevant support (ideas that relate closely to the topic).
   2. Use paragraph form and pay attention to the number of paragraphs you are asked to write.
   3. Use your booklet to write down your ideas, including the points you are going to make and examples and details.  For the long writing tasks,  make a quick outline (also in the booklet)-- put the ideas and details into an order that you will use to write your answer.
   4. We can't remind you enough! Give DETAILS.  This could be examples or something that was in the reading part of the question.  Your ideas or points have to relate to the topic.
   5. Don't leave blanks.  Try to answer all the questions as completely as you can.

Sample Questions and Activities to help you get ready:

Sample test questions from the EQAO -- the people who make up the test!

Reading and Writing exercises from the Independent Learning Centre (TV Ontario): answer the questions and get results online.

Another Test practice site