What is the OSSLT?

Students working toward an Ontario Secondary School Diploma write the OSSLT for the first time in their second year of secondary school, usually Grade 10. That includes students who join Grade 10 from outside Ontario, unless the principal grants a deferral.

Students with an Individual Education Plan may write with accommodations. Students whose IEP shows they are not working toward a diploma may be exempted, with parental consent and the principal’s approval. Mature students can meet the requirement through the literacy course instead of the test.

Yes, for students working toward the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. The literacy requirement is one of the conditions for the diploma, met by passing the OSSLT or, after attempting it, by passing the literacy course. The test is not a course: it has no credit value and does not change any mark.

The Ontario Student Transcript records that the requirement was met. It does not show the score, and universities and colleges do not use the score in admissions.

Is the OSSLT mandatory? What it means for your diploma

The test has two sessions with 37 scored questions. Reading covers four kinds of text: a real-life narrative, an information paragraph, a news report and a dialogue. Students answer 23 selected-response reading questions and write one open-response answer about what they read.

Writing has 12 selected-response questions about organizing ideas and using language conventions, and one opinion essay written as a series of paragraphs. Selected-response questions come in several forms: single and multiple selection, drag and drop, drop-down menus and checklists. The online platform includes text-to-speech, zoom, a line reader, high contrast, and tools for highlighting and rough notes.

EQAO designs Session A to take about 65 minutes and Session B about 75 minutes, so the whole test is roughly two hours and twenty minutes of work, plus a short voluntary questionnaire at the end. Schools run the two sessions back to back with a break, or on two different days, and each session is finished in one continuous, supervised sitting.

Supervised breaks for water or the washroom are allowed within a session. Pencil, eraser and rough paper are allowed; dictionaries and translators are not.

How long is the OSSLT? Sessions, questions and timing

The OSSLT is reported on a scale from 200 to 400, and a score of 300 or higher is a successful result. It is a position on a scale, not points out of 400.

What the OSSLT is out of, and what your score means

For 2026–27, the fall window runs from November 3 to 30, 2026, and the spring window from March 30 to April 19, 2027. Each school picks the day or days its students write within the window.

OSSLT dates 2026–27: test windows, session times and when results come out

Most students pass on their first attempt: in 2025–26, 86% of first-time eligible students in English-language schools were successful, according to EQAO. It is harder for students writing it again.

Is the OSSLT hard? Pass rates by group and where marks are lost

A student who is not yet successful can write the OSSLT again in a later window, and the Individual Student Report gives feedback on what to work on. After two opportunities to write the test, with at least one result of not yet successful, a student can take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC, course code OLC4O). Passing the course meets the same requirement and earns a credit.

A principal can allow a student into the course sooner. Students in their graduating year who, through no fault of their own, could not write the test or take the course may qualify for their board’s adjudication process.

Failed the OSSLT? What happens next

Students whose Individual Education Plan lists accommodations use them on the OSSLT, as long as they already use them for regular classroom assessments: a quiet setting, assistive technology such as text-to-speech software, a scribe, or an alternative version of the test with single-selection and open-response questions only. Modifications to the test content are not permitted, and nobody may read, explain or translate the test for a student.

English language learners write the OSSLT once they have the English proficiency needed for success, and the principal can defer a first attempt until the following year. In 2025–26, 58% of first-time English language learners were successful, compared with 86% of all first-time students.

OSSLT accommodations, deferrals and exemptions

Start with EQAO’s free practice test. It runs on the same platform students use on test day, with every question type and the built-in tools, and its results page shows the correct answers, scoring rubrics and sample responses.

Then practise the skills the test measures: finding stated ideas, making inferences, connecting a text to what you already know, and writing organized paragraphs with a clear main idea, specific support and correct conventions. Read each of the four text types. Finally, write timed answers and get them marked, because the two written answers are where specific feedback makes the biggest difference.

How to prepare for the OSSLT: a four to five month plan