EQAO practice test: which topics need work?

How the EQAO practice test works

Your child answers a full set of 11 questions, one at a time, on a phone, a tablet or a computer. Every answer is a tap or a choice from a list. Nothing is typed, so a stray space or a capital letter can't turn a right answer into a wrong one.

We wrote every question ourselves, each one against a Grade 3 expectation in Ontario's 2020 math curriculum. They come in the same kinds EQAO (the Education Quality and Accountability Office, Ontario's testing agency) uses: pick one, pick all that apply, choose from a drop-down, put in order, and sort into groups. Sets A, B and C each mix the strands in about the same shares as EQAO's blueprint: 4 Number questions, 2 Algebra, 2 Data and 3 Spatial Sense. Money counts as Number, the way EQAO counts it.

When your child taps Mark my practice test, we check every answer against our answer key. One fraction question has two right orders, because 1/2 and 2/4 are the same size, and both count. A question with several parts can come back partly right. That's our own rule (EQAO doesn't publish how it scores a partial answer), and a partly right answer still counts as not right. A skipped question is marked not tried. Never wrong.

The map shows where the misses were, strand by strand. Read it as a place to look, not as a grade. Even EQAO doesn't report strand results for one child, because "each student does not complete enough questions mapped to each strand or skill to report on each accurately." With two to four questions per strand in a mixed set, neither can we.

Then comes the part we built this for. For every question that wasn't right, the follow-up set brings a fresh question on the same topic (or the same one again, if that topic has run out), with a note saying which question put it there. A skipped question comes back as it was, since its answer stayed hidden. Topics your child got right stay out of it, and the set stops at 10.

The real test adapts as your child goes: what shows up in stage 2 depends on stage 1, and the level comes from a statistical model across 40 scored questions. A count out of 11 can't do that. So we show counts and stop there. You won't find a level, a percentage or a prediction anywhere in the results.

Nothing is saved or sent anywhere. Close the tab and it's gone, so if you'd like tomorrow's follow-up set on paper, print the results sheet first.

Who this is for

Ontario parents and guardians of a Grade 3 child, in the weeks before the spring EQAO window, who want to see the question types and find a topic worth a second look.

Tutors who want a quick marked check, plus a printed follow-up sheet to work from.

Families new to Ontario schools who are meeting EQAO for the first time.

Not for Grade 6 yet, and not for Grade 9 math, reading and writing, or other provinces, which have their own curricula and tests. The Grade 10 literacy test has its own page: our OSSLT practice test.