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.

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.

The OSSLT reports a scale score from 200 to 400. A score of 300 or higher is a successful result. EQAO calculates it with a statistical method called Item Response Theory, which takes the difficulty of each question into account, so the score is a position on a scale, not points out of 400.

Selected-response questions are scored by computer. The two written answers are scored by trained Ontario teachers using EQAO’s rubrics. The opinion essay alone accounts for about a quarter of the raw score points, which is why writing practice with feedback matters.

What your OSSLT score means

For 2026–27, the fall window runs from Tuesday, November 3 to Monday, November 30, 2026, and the spring window from Tuesday, March 30 to Monday, April 19, 2027. Each school chooses the day or days its students write within the window, and the last two days are kept for students who missed their session.

EQAO reports fall results by the end of January 2027 and spring results by the end of May 2027.

OSSLT dates for 2026–27

Most students pass on their first attempt. In 2025–26, 86% of the 132,563 first-time eligible students in English-language schools were successful, according to EQAO. Students writing it again found it harder: 49% of the 23,500 previously eligible students were successful.

Results also vary by group. Among first-time students, 58% of English language learners and 65% of students with special education needs were successful. The test measures the literacy expected by the end of Grade 9, so it doesn’t need specialist knowledge. What it rewards is organized writing with a clear main idea and specific support, and that comes from practice with feedback.

Is the OSSLT hard? Pass rates 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

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-week plan