Virginia SOL Earth Science End-of-Course test: complete guide to the 2018 Science Standards of Learning, the reporting categories, the item types, and the 0 to 600 scoring

The Virginia Earth Science Standards of Learning (SOL) End-of-Course (EOC) test is the statewide high school Earth science assessment administered by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). It measures the 2018 Science Standards of Learning for Earth Science, the ES.1 to ES.12 standards. This page is the index: it explains the item types, the reporting categories, the format and scoring, and how to study each content area. The content is organized here into six modules that cover all twelve Earth Science standards in depth.

What the Virginia Earth Science SOL test is

The Earth Science EOC is one of Virginia's End-of-Course SOL tests, taken when a student finishes the matching course. It is built from the 2018 Science Standards of Learning for Earth Science and the accompanying Curriculum Framework, which spells out the essential knowledge behind each standard. Science assessments measuring the 2018 standards were first administered in spring 2023, replacing tests built on the older 2010 standards.

Most students sit the Earth Science EOC in 9th or 10th grade, in a state testing window, with retake windows for students who need to test again. A passing score can earn a verified credit that counts toward the requirements for a Standard or Advanced Studies Diploma, so the Earth Science EOC is part of how a Virginia student graduates, not only a school accountability measure.

The item types

The Earth Science EOC is computer-based, delivered on the TestNav platform, and every item is machine-scored. There is no essay or written short-answer section. Two item types appear:

• Multiple choice. A question with four answer options and exactly one correct answer.
• Technology-enhanced items (TEIs). Items that use the computer to collect a response in a richer way. Common TEI formats are drag-and-drop (place labels on a diagram, a map, or a cross section, or match terms), multi-select (choose every correct answer, with the prompt telling you how many), ordering or sequencing (put events or steps in the right order), fill-in-the-blank or table completion, graphing or plotting on a grid, and hot spot (click a region of an image). A multi-select is usually scored all-or-nothing, so read how many answers it wants.

Because the test is on a computer, many items pair the question with a stimulus: a topographic map, a weather map with a station model, a geologic cross section, a data table, a graph, or a labeled diagram (the rock cycle, a plate boundary, the layers of the atmosphere, Moon phases). The skill the EOC rewards is not just recall; it is reading the stimulus and reasoning from it to the correct response.

Format and scoring

Your raw score (the number of points you earn) is converted to a scale score from 0 to 600 for that test form, using an equating procedure so that the standard is the same across forms.

• Proficient (pass). A scale score of 400 or higher.
• Advanced (pass with advanced proficiency). A scale score of 500 or higher.
• Did not pass. A scale score below 400.

The test has roughly 50 scored questions drawn across the reporting categories, with the categories weighted approximately equally. The blueprint also mixes a small number of unscored field-test items in with the scored items to develop future tests. You cannot tell which is which, so answer every question carefully.

The reporting categories

The 2018 Earth Science standards are grouped into reporting categories for the test, each contributing roughly the same share of the score. This library mirrors them as six modules so each content area gets the depth the test demands.

Reporting Category: Scientific Investigation and the Nature of Science

This is ES.1, the scientific and engineering practices: asking testable questions, planning and carrying out investigations, identifying variables and controls, using SI units and the right instruments, interpreting data tables and graphs, using and evaluating models, distinguishing a theory from a law or a hypothesis, and reasoning from evidence. It is Module 1, but it is assessed inside every other category, because most items ask you to use a practice on real content.

Reporting Category: Earth's materials, resources and plate tectonics

This pulls together ES.3 (matter and energy in Earth systems), ES.4 (minerals), ES.5 (the rock cycle and the three rock types), and ES.7 (plate tectonic theory, Earth's interior, plate boundaries and Virginia's geologic provinces), together with Earth's mineral and energy resources. This library covers it as Module 2.

Reporting Category: Earth's history and surface processes

This is the geologic-time and surface-process content (grouped near ES.9 in the framework): relative and absolute dating, the geologic time scale, fossils, and the surface processes of weathering, erosion and deposition, including how to read a topographic map. This library covers it as Module 3.

Reporting Category: Oceanography, the atmosphere, meteorology and astronomy

This is the largest content block: ES.10 (the ocean as a dynamic system), ES.8 and ES.9 (the atmosphere, weather and climate), and ES.2, ES.11 and ES.12 (the Earth-Moon-Sun system, the solar system and the universe). This library splits it into Module 4 (oceanography), Module 5 (the atmosphere and meteorology), and Module 6 (astronomy).

The scientific and engineering practices (ES.1)

ES.1 runs through the whole test, so it is worth knowing as a checklist. The practices are: asking questions and defining problems; planning and carrying out investigations with controlled variables and repeated trials; using the right instruments and SI units; interpreting, analyzing and evaluating data in tables and graphs; using and evaluating models; distinguishing a fact, a hypothesis, a theory and a law; and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information. Whenever you study a topic, ask how the test could turn it into a map to read, a graph to interpret, a cross section to sequence, or a model to evaluate.

How to study the Virginia Earth Science SOL test

1. Learn the content, then learn to use it. Master the Earth science for every reporting category, but practice applying it: most items give you a stimulus and ask you to do something with it.
2. Drill the practices in ES.1. Get comfortable identifying the independent and dependent variables and the control, reading data tables and graphs, choosing a valid procedure, interpreting models, and reasoning from evidence to a claim.
3. Practice the technology-enhanced formats. Use VDOE's online practice items so drag-and-drop, multi-select, ordering, and hot-spot items feel familiar before test day. A multi-select is all-or-nothing, so check how many answers it wants.
4. Master the maps and diagrams. The EOC leans hard on topographic maps, weather maps and station models, geologic cross sections, the rock cycle, plate-boundary diagrams, and Moon-phase diagrams. Reading these fluently is one of the highest-value skills in the course.
5. Connect topics. The Sun drives the weather and the ocean currents; plate tectonics builds the landscapes that weather and erode; radioactive decay dates the geologic record. Examiners reward these links.

The modules, standard by standard

Each topic has a SOL-level answer page with worked exam questions and cross-links, plus a deep-dive guide and a quiz. Browse the set at /va-sol/earth-environmental-science/syllabus.

Module 1: Scientific investigation and the nature of science

experimental design and variables, measurement units and instruments, data tables, graphs and maps, models, evidence and the nature of science.

Module 2: Earth's materials, resources and plate tectonics

minerals and their properties, the rock cycle and the three rock types, Earth's interior and seismic waves, plate tectonics and plate boundaries, earthquakes and volcanoes, energy and mineral resources.

Module 3: Earth's history and surface processes

relative and absolute dating, radioactive decay and half-life, fossils and the geologic time scale, weathering, erosion and deposition, soil formation, reading topographic maps.

Module 4: Oceanography and the hydrosphere

the water cycle and watersheds, the ocean floor and seawater properties, ocean currents and circulation, waves and tides, the Chesapeake Bay and coastal Virginia.

Module 5: The atmosphere and meteorology

the atmosphere and energy transfer, moisture, humidity and clouds, air pressure and wind, air masses, fronts and severe weather, reading weather maps and station models, climate and climate change.

Module 6: Astronomy and Earth in space

the Earth, Moon and Sun system, seasons and Earth's motions, the solar system and gravity, stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, the universe and the Big Bang.

For the official guidance

VDOE publishes the 2018 Science Standards of Learning and Earth Science Curriculum Framework, the test blueprints, and practice and released items. Always study from the current VDOE materials, because the item formats and the blueprint are specific to this test.