ELAR

TSIA2 ELAR

Unless you’re exempt, you’ll first be administered the multiple-choice College Readiness Classification (CRC) Test. This CRC Test, made up of 30 questions, covers 4 sub categories, and addresses these 2 content categories:

  • Reading-focused questions measure your skills in comprehension and analysis of literary texts, as well as informational and argumentative texts, including paired passages.

  • Writing-focused questions measure your skills in revision and editing of sentences, paragraphs, and early drafts of essays.

If you don’t meet the college readiness benchmark on the CRC you’ll then take the multiple-choice ELAR Diagnostic Test. Take your time and answer each question to the best of your ability. This test provides you with a second opportunity to demonstrate your readiness in ELAR. The ELAR Diagnostic Test contains 48 multiple-choice questions, of which 24 are reading-focused and 24 are writing-focused.


TSIA2 ESSAY

The TSIA2 Essay Test is used along with the multiple choice ELAR component to see if you’re college ready with respect to reading and writing. The Essay Test requires you to provide a 300- to 600-word essay in response to one randomly selected prompt. To help you plan your essay and write rough drafts, you may ask the proctor for plain scratch paper, which will be collected at the end of your test session.Your essay is scored based on six qualities that are highly valued in college-level courses:

  • Purpose and Focus: The extent to which you present information in a unified and coherent manner, clearly addressing the issue

  • Organization and Structure: The extent to which you order and connect ideas

  • Development and Support: The extent to which you develop and support ideas

  • Sentence Variety and Style: The extent to which you craft sentences and paragraphs demonstrating control of vocabulary, voice, and structure

  • Mechanical Conventions: The extent to which you express ideas using Standard English conventions

  • Critical Thinking: The extent to which you communicate a point of view and demonstrate reasoned relationships among ideas You’re not allowed to use a dictionary or other outside resources.

What score on the ELAR test is needed to be considered college ready?

You’re considered college ready in two ways:

  1. If you score in the range of 945-990 on the multiple choice CRC test and a 5 or higher on the essay test or

  2. If you score below 945 on the multiple choice CRC test, receive a diagnostic level of 5 or higher on the diagnostic test and score a 5 or higher on the essay test.