MTH1W Tutoring: Grade 9 Math in Ontario

MTH1W is Ontario's de-streamed Grade 9 math course, the single course every Grade 9 student in the province takes, and the one the EQAO Grade 9 math assessment now counts toward. It is the foundation for MPM2D and every senior math course after it. Winny Math tutors MTH1W online, 1-on-1 or in small groups, with a weekly lesson matched to your class, custom practice included, and a free 30-minute trial to start. Solo lessons are $40 per hour. Here is what the course covers, where it gets hard, and how we help.

What MTH1W covers

MTH1W is a one-credit Grade 9 course with no prerequisite beyond Grade 8 math. Ontario introduced it in 2021 to replace the academic (MPM1D) and applied (MFM1P) streams, so there is now one Grade 9 math course and one set of expectations. The Ontario curriculum for MTH1W organises the content into five strands, with a sixth strand of mathematical thinking, social-emotional learning skills and coding that runs through all of them. Schools split the strands into their own units and teach them in their own order, so your teacher's outline may look different, but the content underneath is the same across the province.

Number

Students sort numbers into the sets they belong to (natural, whole, integer, rational, irrational), work with powers and the exponent laws, and move between fractions, decimals and percentages. Ratios, rates and proportions get a full treatment, including unit rates and percent change. This strand looks like review, but its skills show up inside every other one: a question about slope or interest is also a question about fractions and signed numbers.

Algebra

The largest strand. Students simplify algebraic expressions by collecting like terms, expanding brackets and applying exponent laws to monomials, then solve equations of increasing length: one and two step, multi-step with brackets, and equations with fractions. Linear relations follow: reading a relation from a table, a graph or an equation, finding slope from two points, writing the equation of a line in slope-intercept form, and telling direct from partial variation. The strand also introduces non-linear relations by comparison and asks students to write or alter simple code that models a relation.

Data

Students collect and organise data, choose a suitable graph, and summarise a data set with the mean, median, mode and range. Scatter plots and lines of best fit connect the Data strand back to linear relations, since the goal is to describe a trend, decide how strong it is and use it to predict. Students also learn to read a graph critically and spot a claim the data does not support.

Geometry and measurement

Angle relationships in parallel lines and polygons, the Pythagorean theorem, and perimeter, area, surface area and volume, including composite shapes and solids. A second thread is optimisation: for a fixed perimeter, which rectangle has the largest area, and for a fixed volume, which box uses the least material. Here a sketch is worth more than a formula.

Financial literacy

New to Grade 9 with the de-streamed course. Students build and adjust a budget, compare simple and compound interest, and work through everyday money decisions: saving for a goal, the real cost of a purchase on credit, currency exchange, and how a price changes with tax, discount or appreciation. The math is mostly percentages and growth, so this strand doubles as a review of Number and Algebra.

Where students get stuck

These are the sticking points Brett wrote up in our Grade 9 exam prep guide and our EQAO Grade 9 math guide, drawn from the Grade 9 lessons our tutors run every week. The pattern is clear: most marks in MTH1W are not lost on the hardest questions. They are lost on skills taught in the first weeks that never fully settled.

• Integer and fraction slips. A negative sign dropped while expanding brackets, or two fractions added by adding the denominators, turns a correct method into a wrong answer. In Grade 8 these were a unit; in Grade 9 they are a tool used in every unit, so the gap compounds. The fix is short, daily practice with signed numbers and fractions until they are automatic.
• Equations with brackets and fractions. Students who can solve two-step equations often stall when the equation has brackets on both sides or a fraction in front of a bracket. Learning one consistent order of steps, and checking every answer by substituting it back, removes most of these errors.
• Slope and linear relations. Mixing up rise and run, or not knowing how to rewrite an equation in slope-intercept form, costs marks on several questions at once, because slope appears in the Algebra and Data strands and again in Grade 10. Connecting every equation to its table and its graph, rather than memorising a formula, is what makes it stick.
• Word problems and modelling. The math is often easy; deciding what to calculate is the hard part. Underlining what is asked, naming the variables and writing the equation before doing any arithmetic turns a blank page into a plan.
• Area and volume of composite shapes. Students forget to split the shape or subtract the missing part. Sketching and labelling each piece before calculating fixes it.
• The EQAO digital format. The Grade 9 assessment is written online, and time spent figuring out the on-screen tools is time not spent on math. Students who try the official sample test on a computer before the real one are not surprised on the day.
• Treating EQAO as optional. As Brett wrote in his post on whether EQAO Grade 9 counts, many students still hear from older siblings that it does not matter. That was true years ago and is not true now, so a student who coasts into the assessment can lose a real share of the course mark.

How a weekly MTH1W lesson runs

Most Grade 9 students work with us once a week, 1-on-1, online, with a shared whiteboard. Families who want more in the run-up to a test, or to the EQAO window, add a second class that week. A typical hour looks like this.

1. Homework check (about 10 minutes). The student brings the week's homework and the questions they could not finish. The tutor works through the stuck ones and notes the type of error, because a dropped negative sign and a misread word problem call for different fixes.
2. The current unit (about 30 minutes). The tutor teaches or re-teaches the idea the class is on, matched to the school's order of units, with worked examples on the whiteboard. When the class is ahead of the student, the lesson catches up. When the student is on track, the lesson works slightly ahead so the next class feels familiar.
3. Targeted practice (about 15 minutes). Questions chosen for the exact weak spot, done live so the tutor can see where the thinking goes off. For MTH1W this is where integers, fractions, solving equations and slope get drilled until they are automatic, because those four carry the whole course.
4. Custom practice for the week (about 5 minutes). Every student leaves with a short practice set built for them, included in the price, plus the matching free sets on Winny Math Learn. The next lesson starts by marking it.

Our tutors are high-achieving tutors who took the de-streamed Grade 9 course recently and remember where the traps are. Brett, who founded Winny Math, is a Commerce student at Queen's University and still tutors high school math himself. Lessons run by appointment, including evenings and weekends, which suits Grade 9 students who are also adjusting to a new school and a heavier timetable.

EQAO, exam and test prep for MTH1W

In a semestered Ontario school, MTH1W either runs from September to the exam in late January or from February to the exam in June. Non-semestered schools spread the course over the full year with a June exam. Grade 9 is different from every other high school math course in one way: besides the school's own final evaluation, students write the EQAO Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics, an online test run by the Education Quality and Accountability Office near the end of the course. Since the 2025 to 2026 school year its result counts for at least 10% and up to 30% of the final MTH1W mark, with each school setting the share. Ask the teacher what it is worth at your school, because that decides where the study time should go.

Our exam and test prep tutoring for MTH1W follows a simple rule: a week before each unit test we switch from the current lesson to mixed practice under a timer and clear anything still shaky. For the final exam and EQAO we work backwards from the dates. Number and Algebra first, because every later unit leans on them, then linear relations, then data, geometry and measurement, then financial literacy, then full mixed sets in the EQAO's online format. Students keep a short mistake log through the semester and read it before every test. The full week-by-week version is in our Grade 9 exam prep guide.

Because EQAO draws on the whole year and mixes strands on the same screen, EQAO-style questions belong in regular studying all term, not in a couple of review days at the end. Our EQAO Grade 9 math guide explains how the assessment is scored, what the achievement levels mean and why it changed, and our free EQAO Grade 9 practice test gives you 25 questions across all five strands, each with a worked solution, to find the weak strands before the sitting.

Practice MTH1W free on Winny Math Learn

Winny Math Learn is our free practice platform for the Ontario curriculum. Every MTH1W skill has its own page with worked, step-by-step solutions, no account needed. These are the sets our tutors assign most often between lessons.

• Order of operations with integers: the signed-number habits every other unit depends on.
• Add and subtract fractions: the Grade 8 skill that quietly decides Grade 9 algebra marks.
• Solve multi-step equations with brackets: one consistent order of steps, then check by substitution.
• Calculate slope from two points and rewrite in slope-intercept form: the two linear relations skills that come back in Grade 10.
• Area of composite 2D shapes: sketch, split, label, then calculate.

The full list of MTH1W skills, strand by strand, is on the Grade 9 math practice page.

Pricing

Solo 1-on-1 lessons are $40 per hour. Small-group classes are $25 per student per hour, for 2 to 3 students, which suits classmates studying for the same test. When your family has more than one 1-on-1 class a week, each one is $35 per hour. Custom practice material is included with every lesson. Everyone starts with a free 30-minute trial, with no commitment. Full details, including billing and cancellation, are in the pricing and policies section on the homepage, and our guide to math tutoring costs in Ontario shows how that compares with other options.

Looking at the whole Grade 9 to 12 path? Our high school math tutoring guide covers every course code, from MTH1W through MPM2D and MCR3U to the three Grade 12 options, and which ones universities want. For the senior courses, see our MHF4U tutoring and MCV4U tutoring pages.

Frequently asked questions