The two-part structure of the Ohio English II test: how the test is delivered in two parts on computer, what each part contains (reading passages with machine-scored items and at least one hand-scored extended response), how the reporting categories of Reading Literary Text, Reading Informational Text, and Writing map onto it, and how knowing the structure helps you plan.

What this skill is asking

Knowing how Ohio's State Test for English Language Arts II is built is its own kind of preparation, because the structure tells you what to expect and how to plan your effort. The test is delivered on computer in two parts. Across those parts you read unseen literary and informational passages and answer machine-scored items on them, and you complete at least one extended response, the hand-scored essay. The results are grouped for reporting into three categories, Reading Literary Text, Reading Informational Text, and Writing, which mirror the strands of Ohio's Learning Standards the test assesses. This page covers what each part contains, how the reporting categories map onto the test, and how understanding the structure helps you walk in with a plan rather than a surprise. It is the orientation that makes the rest of the exam-strategy module concrete.

What the two parts contain

The test is split into two parts, and both draw on the same core skills applied to unseen texts.

The most important consequence of the two-part design is that you are doing two kinds of work, close reading of unseen passages and sustained writing, and both reward the same evidence habit. The reading items, the technology-enhanced formats described in technology-enhanced item types, and the extended response in understanding the extended response are not separate subjects; they are the same skills measured in different ways across the two parts.

The three reporting categories

Ohio groups your results into three categories, and they show you what to prepare.

The reporting categories are a study map. If you want to know where your effort should go, it is these three areas: literary reading, informational reading, and writing. They are weighted as a balanced test of reading and writing, which is why this site treats reading and writing as one connected skill, the close analysis that wins reading items is the same analysis that supplies good essay evidence.

Using the structure to plan

Knowing the shape of the test lets you plan both your study and your test day.

Try this

Q1. How is the English II test delivered, and what does it include? [Recall]

• Cue. On computer in two parts. Across the parts you read unseen literary and informational passages with machine-scored items, and you write at least one hand-scored extended response.

Q2. Name the three reporting categories and say how they should shape your study. [Short explanation]

• Cue. Reading Literary Text, Reading Informational Text, and Writing. Because all three are reported and tested, your study should cover literary reading, informational reading, and the extended response plus conventions, rather than focusing on only one.