REVIEW OF Ontario Virtual School BY student, Malaika Abdullah

(5) Student Experience

It is peaceful and fun at Ontario Virtual School. I personally love it, and I’ve hardly felt stress when doing courses here. The structure of the courses is well built, with good examples and fun videos used. Any student who attends here learns how to manage their time, as students dictate how they learn (how many lessons in a day, how many days to complete a course, etc.). This may be a dealbreaker for some students who have difficulty focusing and staying on track, but teachers can help. You can book one-on-one tutoring for specific topics with your teacher, where they help you understand what you’re lost on. Additionally, there are usually videos in lessons, and there is optional homework that can help a student further understand a topic.

(5) School Leadership

Everyone at Ontario Virtual School is polite, knowledgeable, and fast at replying to emails. I’ve sometimes gotten a response back within an hour, especially during the daytime on weekdays. The community is helpful, and they are able to respond to questions with insightful answers. Whenever I’m confused about something, no one at OVS makes me feel ashamed of it and helps me understand it. Overall, OVS is full of people who want to help you and are great at supporting students.

(5) Teaching

The teachers at this school are very fair with how much they expect of a student and answer questions well. In one assignment I completed, I couldn’t personally perform an experiment the exact way required. I emailed my teacher, and he was kind enough to allow me to do the experiment another way. He replied quickly, and it was a great relief to me that my grade wouldn’t be affected. This shows that the teachers here do want a student to succeed and are able to help the student do so in many ways. In order to succeed at OVS, a student must make sure to complete lessons and practice tests because the teachers won’t ever throw a curveball and are fair at marking.

(5) Academics

The work isn’t easy nor hard; it’s in the middle. Some lessons can be heavy, while some are light, so it’s overall balanced. At times, I’ve had to split up lessons to finish at different times, while some lessons can be done fairly quickly. It is also important to go through every single lesson, as missing even one can cause problems during tests or exams. Additionally, OVS supplies students with practice tests and exams, along with solutions. These practice documents are great practice, and the tests end up being similar. The structure of the test also ends up being similar, and it helps inform the student about what is expected of them. Furthermore, the information in the course is pretty useful; I have applied stuff I’ve learned in this school to real-life situations.

(5) School Life

OVS is an online school, so this is not applicable.

(5) Admissions

In order to take classes, you must make an account and then pay for the course. If any prerequisites are required, you must provide proof of them in order to carry on. For anyone who’s planning on taking courses here, I’d advise having your transcript ready, including prerequisites, or preparing to buy them here and take them before your course. The overall process is simple, and you get email confirmations of your payment, your account password (which you can change later), resources, etc.