Sample Assessment Questions

The items below are examples of questions 15-year-olds were asked to answer for PISA. When you click an item in one of the four subject categories, you will see the item image and links to the item questions. Click on these links and a new window will open with a question, its answer, and the percent of students in the United States and other OECD countries who answered correctly.

Internet Relay Chat

Question 1 and Answer   |   Question 2 and Answer

Mark (from Sydney, Australia) and Hans (from Berlin, Germany) often communicate with each other using “chat” on the Internet. They have to log on to the Internet at the same time to be able to chat.

To find a suitable time to chat, Mark looked up a chart of world times and found the above:

PISA's definition of literacy

For more sample questions from the PISA assessments view this OECD publication:
Take the Test: Sample Questions from OECD's PISA Assessments