OSSLT Practice Test Guide: What's on the Ontario Literacy Test

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is the literacy test most Ontario students write in Grade 10. Passing it, or the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, is needed for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

What is on the test

• Reading informational texts such as articles and reports
• Reading narrative texts such as short stories
• Reading graphic texts such as schedules, charts and ads
• Writing a short news report from a headline and picture
• Writing a series of paragraphs that gives and supports an opinion
• Multiple-choice questions on grammar, punctuation and sentence structure

How it is scored

The result is pass or not yet passed. Students who do not pass can rewrite the test or take the literacy course instead.

A four-week practice plan

• Week 1: one reading text a day, finding the main idea and two supporting details
• Week 2: practise graphic texts and short answers
• Week 3: write one news report and one opinion paragraph
• Week 4: timed practice and fixing common grammar mistakes