In keeping with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s guidelines as stipulated in “Policies and Procedures for Ontario Elementary and Secondary Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12”, all students arriving at Southern Ontario College will be assessed for proficiency in English. The assessment procedure will include:
A structured interview to assess oral communication skills
An assessment of reading comprehension
An assessment of student writing
An assessment of mathematical knowledge and skills

Policy 2.3.1 (17).
The following documents are sample tests for English and mathematical proficiency.

SAMPLE PLACEMENT TEST FOR ENGLISH

This test is meant to gauge the four categories of achievement assessment and evaluation in keeping with the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum policy documents. These categories are knowledge/understanding, critical thinking skills, communication and application.

Part I
Students will read a short passage and answer subsequent short answer questions. Students should be sure to use the passage and their own ideas to support their answers. All answers must be in keeping with the scholarly conventions of academic writing.

Part II
Information paragraph:
Students will write one well-constructed paragraph (one paragraph only) on one aspect of a topic. This aspect will become the main idea of the paragraph. Students should include a topic sentence.

Students will receive informational points and will choose at least four as supporting details to develop their main idea. In the paragraph, students should include a topic sentence, supporting details and a concluding sentence. You must use information from the list provided.

Part III
Students will write a series of paragraphs (a minimum of three) expressing an opinion on a topic provided. Students will develop a main idea with supporting details (proof, facts, and examples). The purpose and audience is to persuade an adult who is interested in your opinion.

A typical introduction should have some type of opening or introductory statement, a statement expressing the opinion, and a list of the supporting details to be used. The body paragraphs should have clear topic sentences, which identify the supporting details to be discussed. The subsequent sentences in the body paragraphs should clearly identify and explain appropriate supporting details and connect those details to the topic of the series of paragraphs. The body paragraph should also have appropriate closing sentences, which summarize and conclude the paragraphs. Finally, the conclusion of the series of paragraphs should summarize the supporting details, restate the opinion being supported, and conclude the writing assignment appropriately.

Part IV
Students will analyze a poem. In their words and using the poem as a source, students will discuss the structure of the poem and any poetic devices or techniques. Some poetic devices utilized may be: alliteration, rhyme scheme, personification, simile and anaphora.

MATHEMATICS PLACEMENT TEST

The placement test consists of 9 questions from grade 11 Mathematics (MCR3U).
If a student answers 5 or more questions correctly, he (she) will be placed in grade 12.
If the student answers 2 to 4 questions, he (she) will be placed in grade 11.
If the student answers 0 to 1 question, he (she) will be placed in grade 10.

Topics of test questions:
sequences (arithmetic and geometric sequences)
sequences (sum of infinite sequences)
sequences (Pascal’s triangle)
polynomials (exponent laws)
quadratics (quadratic equations and their graphs)
transformations (translations, expansions, and compressions)
trigonometry (sine and cosine laws)
trigonometric graphs (transformations of trigonometric functions)
exponential functions (transformations of exponential functions)