EQAO Grade 9 Math Practice Quiz: 20 Questions With Worked Answers

How to use this quiz

Do all twenty before you look at a single answer. That is the whole value of it.

A practice quiz is a diagnostic. The score at the end tells you very little, because this is not the real assessment and it is not scored the way the real one is. What it tells you is which strand is short. Five wrong answers scattered across five strands means something completely different from five wrong answers all in Algebra, and only the second one gives you something to do on Monday.

The answer key names the strand and the skill behind every question for exactly that reason.

What the real assessment looks like

Worth knowing before you practise, because it changes what practice is worth.

The Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics covers the MTH1W course. EQAO's own wording is that students in "the MTH1W Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics course are learning the knowledge and skills that are defined in the expectations found in the 2021 Ontario Grade 9 mathematics curriculum", and the assessment tests that curriculum.

Three things about the real test that most practice material online will not tell you.

It adapts as your child works. EQAO says students "complete two sessions with four stages". The assessment is adaptive, which means what appears later depends in part on how the earlier part went. A flat PDF practice test cannot reproduce that. EQAO's own sample test can, and it is free.

The questions are not all multiple choice. EQAO lists "drag-and-drop, drop-down menu and single- and multiple-selection questions". A student who has only ever practised on four-option multiple choice can lose real time working out how a question wants to be answered.

The formula sheet covers less than most students assume. EQAO's description is precise: "Formulas are given for the area of various geometric shapes." Area. So the volume of a cylinder, the Pythagorean relationship and the slope of a line are all things a student needs to bring with them. Two questions below depend on exactly that.

The next windows are 12 January to 5 February 2027, and 8 June to 30 June 2027. Check EQAO's own page before relying on those dates.

Section 1: Number

Question 1. Which expression is equal to 2^5 x 2^3?

• A. 2^8
• B. 2^15
• C. 4^8
• D. 4^15

Question 2. What is the value of 3^4 divided by 3^2?

• A. 3
• B. 9
• C. 27
• D. 81

Question 3. A recipe uses 250 mL of milk for 4 pancakes. At the same rate, how much milk is needed for 10 pancakes?

• A. 425 mL
• B. 500 mL
• C. 625 mL
• D. 1000 mL

Question 4. A jacket costs $80. The price is reduced by 25%, and then 13% HST is added to the reduced price. What is the final amount paid?

• A. $67.80
• B. $69.60
• C. $70.40
• D. $78.40

Question 5. Select all of the following numbers that are irrational.

• A. the square root of 16
• B. the square root of 20
• C. pi
• D. 22/7
• E. 0.375

Section 2: Algebra

Question 6. Simplify 4(2x - 3) - 2(x + 5).

• A. 6x - 22
• B. 6x - 2
• C. 10x - 22
• D. 6x + 22

Question 7. Solve 5x - 7 = 3x + 9.

• A. x = 1
• B. x = 8
• C. x = 16
• D. x = -8

Question 8. A taxi charges a $4.50 flat fee plus $1.75 for every kilometre travelled. Which equation models the total cost C for a trip of d kilometres?

• A. C = 4.50d + 1.75
• B. C = 1.75d + 4.50
• C. C = 6.25d
• D. C = 1.75(d + 4.50)

Question 9. Using the same taxi, what is the cost of a 12 km trip?

• A. $21.00
• B. $25.50
• C. $26.25
• D. $75.00

Question 10. A line passes through the point (0, -3) and has a slope of 2. What is its equation?

• A. y = -3x + 2
• B. y = 2x - 3
• C. y = 2x + 3
• D. y = -2x - 3

Question 11. Select all of the following relations that are linear.

• A. y = 3x - 5
• B. y = x squared, plus 1
• C. a table in which x runs 0, 1, 2, 3 and y runs 7, 10, 13, 16
• D. y = 2 divided by x

Question 12. A student writes this set of instructions. Set total to 0. For i from 1 to 5, set total to total plus (2 x i). What is the value of total when the instructions finish?

• A. 15
• B. 20
• C. 30
• D. 55

Section 3: Data

Questions 13 and 14 both use this set of nine test scores: 12, 15, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 90.

Question 13. Which measure of central tendency best represents a typical score in this set?

• A. the mean
• B. the median
• C. the mode
• D. the range

Question 14. What is the median of the nine scores?

• A. 18
• B. 20
• C. 22
• D. 27.2

Question 15. A scatter plot shows hours studied on one axis and test score on the other. The points rise from left to right in a fairly tight band. What does the scatter plot show?

• A. a strong positive correlation
• B. a strong negative correlation
• C. no correlation
• D. proof that studying causes higher test scores

Section 4: Geometry and Measurement

Question 16. A cylindrical water tank has a radius of 3 m and a height of 5 m. What is its volume, to the nearest cubic metre? Use 3.14 for pi.

• A. 47 cubic metres
• B. 141 cubic metres
• C. 471 cubic metres
• D. 94 cubic metres

Question 17. A rectangular garden measures 12 m by 8 m. A path 1 m wide is built all the way around the outside of it. What is the area of the path alone?

• A. 20 square metres
• B. 40 square metres
• C. 44 square metres
• D. 140 square metres

Question 18. A ladder leans against a wall. Its foot is 1.5 m from the base of the wall, and it reaches 3.6 m up the wall. How long is the ladder, to one decimal place?

• A. 3.3 m
• B. 3.9 m
• C. 5.1 m
• D. 15.2 m

Section 5: Financial Literacy

Question 19. Priya earns $18.50 per hour and works 22 hours. Deductions come to 18% of her gross pay. What is her net pay?

• A. $333.74
• B. $334.74
• C. $73.26
• D. $480.26

Question 20. A laptop costs $1,200 up front. It can also be bought on a payment plan: $150 down, then 12 monthly payments of $95. How much more does the payment plan cost in total?

• A. $90
• B. $140
• C. $150
• D. $1,290

Answer key, with the working

Read this only after all twenty are done.

The working

1. A. When you multiply powers with the same base, add the exponents. 5 plus 3 is 8, so the answer is 2^8. The base stays 2. Option C is the common error: multiplying the bases as well.

2. B. Dividing powers with the same base means subtracting the exponents. 4 minus 2 is 2, and 3^2 is 9.

3. C. 250 divided by 4 is 62.5 mL for each pancake. Ten pancakes need 62.5 x 10, which is 625 mL. Option B is what you get by rounding to 50 mL per pancake, which is the error worth spotting.

4. A. Do the two steps in order. A 25% reduction leaves 75% of $80, which is $60. Adding 13% means multiplying by 1.13, and 60 x 1.13 is $67.80. Combining the two percentages into one step is where this question catches people.

5. B and C. An irrational number cannot be written as one whole number over another. The square root of 16 is exactly 4. 22/7 is already a fraction of two integers, and although it is close to pi it is not pi. 0.375 is 3/8. That leaves the square root of 20, which does not resolve, and pi.

6. A. 4(2x - 3) is 8x - 12. Then -2(x + 5) is -2x - 10, and the minus applies to both terms inside the bracket. Adding them gives 6x - 22. Option B comes from forgetting to distribute the minus onto the 5.

7. B. Take 3x from both sides to get 2x - 7 = 9. Add 7 to both sides to get 2x = 16. So x = 8.

8. B. The $1.75 is charged for each kilometre, so it multiplies d. The $4.50 is charged once, so it is the constant. That gives C = 1.75d + 4.50. Option A swaps them, which is the most common mistake on this type.

9. B. Substitute 12 for d. 1.75 x 12 is 21.00, and adding the 4.50 flat fee gives $25.50.

10. B. A point with an x-coordinate of 0 sits on the y-axis, so (0, -3) is the y-intercept. In y = mx + b, m is 2 and b is -3, giving y = 2x - 3.

11. A and C. A relation is linear when a constant change in x produces a constant change in y. In the table, y climbs by 3 every time, so it is linear. y = 3x - 5 is already in linear form. Squaring makes B non-linear, and dividing by x makes D non-linear.

12. C. Follow the loop one step at a time. It adds 2, then 4, then 6, then 8, then 10. Those total 30. Option D, 55, comes from adding the squares by mistake.

13. B. Eight of the nine scores sit between 12 and 28. The 90 is an outlier, and it drags the mean up to 27.2, which is higher than all but two of the actual scores. The median of 20 sits in the middle of the real group. This is the standard reason to prefer the median.

14. B. Put the nine scores in order and take the fifth one, because with nine values the fifth has four below it and four above. That is 20.

15. A. Rising left to right means positive. A tight band means strong. Option D is the trap, and it is a favourite: a scatter plot can show that two things move together, and it can never show that one causes the other.

16. B. The volume of a cylinder is the area of its circular base multiplied by its height. The base area is pi x 3 squared, which is 3.14 x 9, or 28.26. Times 5 gives 141.3, so 141 cubic metres. Note that the formula sheet gives you the area of a circle. Turning that into a volume is on you.

17. C. Draw it. The path adds 1 m on all four sides, so the outer rectangle is 14 m by 10 m, which is 140 square metres. The garden inside is 12 x 8, or 96. The path is what is left: 140 - 96 = 44 square metres. Option A comes from adding 1 m to only one side of each dimension.

18. B. The wall and the ground meet at a right angle, so the ladder is the hypotenuse. 1.5 squared is 2.25 and 3.6 squared is 12.96. Together that is 15.21, and the square root of 15.21 is exactly 3.9 m. Option D is what you get by stopping before the square root.

19. A. Gross pay is 18.50 x 22, which is $407.00. Deductions of 18% come to 407 x 0.18, or $73.26. Net pay is what remains: $333.74. Option C is the deductions themselves, which is worth noticing as a misread of the question.

20. A. The plan costs 150 plus 12 lots of 95. That is 150 + 1,140, or $1,290. Paying up front costs $1,200. The difference is $90, which is what the credit costs.

What to do with the result

Count the wrong answers by strand, not in total.

All five strands roughly even, a few wrong in each. That usually means the topics are fine and the reading of the question is not. Go back to the ones that were missed and read them aloud.

One strand clearly worse than the rest. That is the useful outcome, and it is what this quiz is for. Take that strand back to the course notes for the relevant unit.

Algebra weak specifically. Algebra carries the most questions in this quiz for a reason: it carries the most weight in the course. Work backwards to whichever step broke, because algebra failures are almost always an earlier step, not the one being asked about.

Nearly everything wrong. Stop practising and find out what is going on underneath. More practice tests will not help, and doing them repeatedly can make a student feel worse without teaching them anything.

For context on where Grade 9 maths sits provincially: among students in English-language schools, 58% met the provincial standard in mathematics in 2024-2025, up from 54% in each of the two years before. Half of Grade 9 students say they like mathematics. Once results arrive, EQAO results explained covers what the levels mean.

Where to practise next

EQAO's own material is free and better than anything sold. Do the sample test on EQAO's site, because it is the only way to meet the real platform, the real question types and the adaptive format. Then work through the released questions for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 2025 set is the most useful of the three, because EQAO publishes provincial data showing what percentage of students chose each answer, so you can see which wrong answers were tempting and why.

If Grade 9 maths is a step up from where things ended last year, Grade 8 math in Ontario covers what the course assumes on day one. Looking further ahead, the Grade 9 result is the first signal in a chain that ends at university prerequisites, and Ontario's senior math streams sets out where each path leads.

When a teacher helps more than another practice test

A practice quiz shows you which strand is short. It cannot tell you why, and the why is what changes what you do.

A student who misses Question 6 might not know how to distribute a negative. Or they might be fine with that and weak on integers underneath it. Those look identical on a score sheet and need different teaching. Maths support sits under math.

That is the work Genie does. Genie works only with Canadian Certified Teachers, licensed by a provincial governing body such as the Ontario College of Teachers. Before a teacher sees a student profile, their certificate number and issuing body are checked against the provincial registry, with a live government-ID match. Genie calls this the Trust Engine. Students are matched by course, pace and personality, and parents get a per-lesson record of what was covered and what their child understood.

A certified teacher who has taught MTH1W also knows what comes next. They can chart which courses a student needs to reach a target programme, then focus the teaching on the subject areas that get them there.