Do
For teachers
Twelve priorities, a year-long calendar, accommodations, and the traps.
If you only do twelve things
In priority order, weighted by how much of the assessment they touch and how reliably the evidence says students lose marks there.
- Multiplicative thinking, taught as distinct from additive thinking
The most diagnostic error in EQAO's entire analysis. Children recognise the direction of a problem and pick the wrong operation. Sorting mixed word problems into two piles, with justification, is the intervention — and it costs fifteen minutes a week.
- Multi-step questions, named as such
“How many steps does this need?” before starting, and “did I do them all?” after. The area question answered halfway, the change question stopped after the subtraction, the two-purchase problem — all the same failure.
- Instant recall of ×2, ×5, ×10 and the related division facts
B2.2, and the year's highest-value single outcome. Not all the tables — those are Grade 4. - Evidence plus “which shows that…” in every reading response
The published rubric turns on whether the child connects the evidence to the point or leaves the reader to do it. One taught sentence structure moves a 20 to a 30.
- Precise mathematical vocabulary, on a wall, all year
Faces, edges, vertices. Impossible, unlikely, equally likely, likely, certain. Loop, repeat, sequence. Mode, mean, frequency. Perimeter, area. EQAO found language failures across every strand.
- Pattern rules applied to every term, and gaps counted rather than numbers
The hardest released question in the 2025 set, failed by most students who met the standard.
- Writing that finishes
Organisation is scored. A piece with no ending is disorganised by definition. Plan for three developed paragraphs, not five started ones.
- Scales and keys, always read first
Number lines, bar graphs, pictographs. Pointing at the key before answering, every single time, until it is automatic.
- All three writing forms — narrative, persuasive, informational
The prompt could be any of them. A child who has only written stories is exposed.
- Faces, edges and vertices, counted on real objects
Half of Level 2 students could not do this. It is twenty minutes with a box, a tin and a paper pyramid.
- The sample test, on the real devices
Free, official, and it removes an entire category of lost marks that has nothing to do with what the child knows.
- Saying, clearly and more than once, that there is enough time
Extra time may be given to all students. Most children do not know this, and a surprising number of the marks lost to rushing are lost to a belief that is simply false.
The year, in order
- September to March — the whole point
Teach the curriculum. This is the preparation, and EQAO says so. Build multiplicative thinking deliberately from the autumn; establish mathematical vocabulary early with a word wall for 3-D objects and probability language on a continuum; give evidence-based inference a routine — which words made you think that?, every time; write in all three forms repeatedly; establish revising and editing as two different jobs; use the released questions as pre- and post-assessment.
- Six to eight weeks out
Confirm the school's dates. Check technical readiness with the board IT contact — device configuration, bandwidth, allowed-list. Confirm every student's accommodations and exemptions are recorded in the e-assessment system. Request Alternative Version formats. Schedule the sample test. Send the information letter to families.
- Three to four weeks out
Run the sample test on the real devices, both components. Test any assistive technology inside the platform. Teach the review-before-submit habit explicitly. Confirm student logins work. Talk to the class about what the assessment is and is not — EQAO's student committee reports that positive discussion beforehand reduces nervousness.
- The week before
Schedule so no sitting is cut short by recess, an assembly or the bell. Avoid scheduling near a break or at the end of the day. Arrange the room: headphones, paper, pencils, erasers, rulers. Confirm dictionaries and thesauruses for the writing open-response. Remind families — sleep and breakfast, and nothing more.
- On the day
Unlock only the session or stage being completed. Keep absent students' sessions locked. Monitor the invigilation page. Give supervised water, stretch and washroom breaks as needed. Remind students they can go back and check before submitting. Ensure paper response sheets are completed before submission. Lock any unlocked sessions at the end of the sitting.
- Afterwards
Report any issue affecting security, validity or reliability before requesting Individual Student Reports, and no later than the final day of the window. Complete the Teacher Questionnaire. Return to normal teaching. It is over.
Access, accommodations and exemptions
Available to every student, no paperwork
The published times are suggested, and extra time may be given to all students. Say this out loud to a class. For an anxious child it is often the single most useful sentence in the whole preparation.
Requiring an IEP or a documented special consideration
- Alternative Version formats — Braille, e-Braille, printable PDF in large or regular print, online with or without full descriptions of mathematics graphics (single-selection questions only)
- Assistive technology — Read&Write for Chrome, Kurzweil, NVDA, VoiceOver, Read Aloud, JAWS, ChromeVox, Natural Reader
- Voice-to-text
- Verbatim scribing
- Sign language or oral interpreter
- Extended periodic supervised breaks
Special considerations that qualify a student without an IEP: new to school (with supervisory officer permission) · temporary or unique circumstances (with school administrator permission) · English language learner in the early stages of acquisition.
EQAO explicitly encourages this. Software that works elsewhere may not interact well with drag-and-drop or drop-down items — Read&Write users, for instance, need the Hover Speech tool to reach them. Finding this out in May is too late.
Scribing, briefly
Scribes must be adults and must not be relatives of the student. They transcribe exactly what is dictated, assume each sentence starts with a capital and ends with a period, read it back if asked, show the student the transcription and correct only as directed. They must not clarify, explain, translate, prompt, react, or suggest strategies.
Exemptions
Decided before the assessment, for each student individually, in consultation with the student, parents or guardians and teaching staff — and with the consent of the parents or guardians.
Two are mandatory rather than discretionary:
- A student must be exempted from reading if built-in or external text-to-speech is not sufficient to give them access to the reading assessment.
- A student must be exempted from mathematics if they require mathematics terms to be defined for them.
If the parents or guardians request that the student write the assessment, the student must be permitted to write it. That decision rests with the family. Exemptions are recorded per component — a student may be exempted from writing and still complete reading and mathematics.
Classroom resources
Built from the same evidence as this guide, and deliberately not practice tests.
The Colour Works — worksheets
44 printable sheets across seven benches. Every bench targets a named weak spot; the answer key is generated from the sheets, so it cannot drift.
Open the book →The Colour Works — games
36 games, one per sheet, offline and self-contained. Stars only accumulate; “Show me” appears after two tries.
Play →What each bench targets, and the four rules that make them work →
Common mistakes in preparation
| The mistake | Why it backfires |
|---|---|
| Drilling in April | Three weeks cannot build proportional reasoning, and the sprint itself signals that the assessment is dangerous |
| Teaching “explain your thinking” for the mathematics component | There is no open-response mathematics question at Grade 3 and no Communication category. Teach explanation because it builds reasoning — not as test preparation |
| Practising only on paper | The assessment is drag-and-drop, drop-down and checklist. Paper practice misses a real and cheap source of lost marks |
| Assuming digital fluency | Only a third of Grade 3 students report being able to use the internet at home for school work |
| Treating Level 4 as the target | Level 3 is the provincial standard and a good result. Level 4 does not mean working beyond the grade |
| Telling children Stage 1 determines everything | True enough to be repeated, and precisely the fact that produces a frozen child |
| Teaching “restate the question” as the answer | A restatement alone is coded I — the same code as blank |
| Encouraging safe, simple sentences to protect spelling | Trades Topic Development points, which are worth more, for Conventions points that were probably not at risk |
| Scheduling a session before recess | A session interrupted mid-sitting is an administration problem, not a student problem, and it is entirely avoidable |
| Reading the result as a verdict on a child | It is a snapshot of a system, reported four months later, with three numbers on it |