Supports for Students During the Assessment

The following section lists the types of supports permitted during the assessment.

Permitted Resources During the Assessment

During the assessment, students are permitted to access:

  • headphones for listening to questions
  • white noise or calming music as required
  • a pencil, eraser, ruler and paper for rough work
  • an additional calculator, including a scientific or graphing calculator with or without computer algebra systems
  • manipulatives or virtual applications, including online manipulatives, graphing applications or calculators, that are not instructional and that students use on a regular basis
  • a hard copy of the EQAO Formula Sheet
  • a hard copy of the EQAO French–English and English–French Glossaries

Note: Instructional materials that facilitate responses to questions cannot be used during the assessment. However, classroom displays do not need to be changed during the assessment. 

During the assessment, students are not permitted to:

  • have anyone define, translate or explain questions or individual words.
  • have anyone influence students’ answers or draw attention to a specific part of the assessment.
  • use a dictionary or a thesaurus (this includes electronic dictionaries and translators).

Supports for All Students

School administrators and teachers can create a plan to accommodate all students who require the following:

  • additional time
  • a quiet, individual and/or small group setting
  • preferential seating
  • prompts, either a tap on the desk or a verbal signal, for students who are off task
  • supervised breaks, as long as a session or stage is completed in one continuous sitting
  • verbatim reading of instructions and/or questions by an educator or scribe
  • the text-to-speech tool built into the e-assessment platform

Please refer to the Professional Responsibilities of All Individuals Involved in the Administration of the Assessments for the professional responsibilities of all individuals involved in the Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics.

Accessibility Features and Tools Built Into the E-Assessment Platform

All students have access to a set of accessibility tools located on the e-assessment platform’s student toolbar. The tools that are available for all students are:

  • a help menu
  • a text-to-speech function that reads the text on the screen out loud
  • zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities
  • a line reader that helps students focus on one line of text at a time
  • a high-contrast view
  • drawing tools (highlighter, line and eraser)
  • a calculator

All students will also have access to virtual breathing exercises and reminders of test taking strategies.

For information on supports for students with special education needs or English language learners, refer to the section Accommodations or English Language Learners.

Updated on January 11, 2023