Starting in third grade, students in Virginia take a yearly SOL assessment test in English. For third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades, the SOL assessment is only on reading. Questions are multiple choice and cover topics like reading comprehension and vocabulary. Students in fifth, eighth and ninth through twelfth grades must also complete a writing section on the SOL assessment. These writing sections are divided into two parts. The first part includes multiple choice questions on grammar and sentence structure, while the second section requires students to complete a written essay responding to a given prompt. In order to graduate, high school students must take four English courses and successfully pass the SOL assessment in at least two of those courses.
Students in third through eighth grades must take an SOL assessment test in math at the end of every year. Once in high school, students take SOL assessments at the completion of each math course. High school students must take a minimum of three math classes in order to achieve a standard diploma. Of these three math courses, at least two must be in algebra I, algebra II, geometry or a higher level math course. Students must also pass at least one SOL assessment in three math subjects in order to receive a standard diploma. All questions on the math assessments are multiple choice for all grade levels.
Fifth and eighth grade students take SOL assessment tests in science, and high school students take SOL assessments at the end of every science course. To graduate, high school students must take at least three science courses, and two of these must be in earth science, chemistry, biology or physics. High school students must pass at least one SOL assessment in these science classes in order to graduate with a standard diploma. The science tests are always multiple choice.
Similar to the science SOL assessments, history SOL tests are issued for fifth and eighth graders and high school students completing history and social science courses. High school students must take classes in U.S. history and U.S. government and a third class in world history or geography. To receive a standard high school diploma, high school students must pass at least one SOL assessment in history. Questions on the history tests are also entirely multiple choice.