The TOPS Entrance Exam will be held at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute on Friday, November 13th. The exam will start at 9:00AM. Please arrive at 8:30AM for administrative purposes.
For more information regarding the TOPS exam registration, please see the Admissions menu.
Taking public transit, such as the TTC, as outlined below is highly recommended. Parking will be LIMITED at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute. For driving/transit directions, please visit our Contact Us page.
A letter to all TOPS Applicants from Michael McMaster, the curriculum leader of the TOPS Program.
Dear TOPS Applicant, Parent and/or guardian:
Thank you again for your interest in the TOPS program and for registering in advance. It has been very helpful for us.
I would like to give some suggestions and reminders before you come to Marc Garneau Collegiate this Friday for the entrance exam.
- Make sure you bring a PHOTOCOPY of your grade 7 June report card. You are welcome to include a copy of your progress report (if it is available), but it isn’t necessary.
- As for your profile, if you wish to include additional material, remember to use PHOTOCOPIES and not to include original documents. We will not be able to return anything you submit to us.
- You will need a non-graphing calculator (permitted for the science exam only), pencils, and a non-electronic dictionary, if you wish, for the English exam. The overwhelming majority of students never need or use a dictionary. You may not use your phone as a calculator.
I would like to strongly encourage you and your family to consider taking TTC to the exam. We will not have as much parking access as we did for the information night (Valley Park will not be available), and you will be competing for spots with teachers who will be coming to work. Also, there is construction along Overlea Blvd., and it is quite possible that the Overlea entrance to our parking lot will be blocked off. This will only leave the Don Mills entrance available and is sure to be problematic for people coming by car. If you come from the north, the Don Mills 25 bus is very frequent. If you start by subway, you can stop at Broadview Station and take the Flemingdon 100 bus, or go to Pape Station and take the 25 bus. All these options have a stop at Don Mills and Overlea Blvd. You may wish to allot more time to get to the school in the morning. We will be starting the exam at 9:00 a.m. and will not provide additional time for those who arrive late.
Let me describe what you can expect when you come to the school. When you arrive, please go to the gymnasium where you will find our registration centre. You will see large letters on the wall behind tables that will correspond to the first letter of your last name. At the table, students will provide you with a large envelope that will have information that you provided to us. Please check that the information is correct – if there are errors, please make corrections to the front of the envelope. Students will collect the $20 and provide you with a receipt. If you have any concerns regarding the $20 registration fee, please speak with me or another teacher in the gymnasium during registration.
If there is no envelope for you at the registration table, don’t worry – even if you are sure you registered! Please go over to the “New Registrations” desk and we will get you set up.
Your envelope will tell you in which room you will write the exams. We suggest that you make your way to the exam room by 8:45 a.m. This envelope will also give you your TOPS ID number (located in the top right corner of the envelope). Once you are in the exam room, please write your TOPS ID number (in large numbers) on your report card, profile, and any other material you may submit to us. We are also asking all parents to leave the school and return at 11:30 a.m. This will be a professional development day for staff and we do not have facilities for you to wait.
We will be making our decisions in early December. Admittance to the program is decided by consensus by the selection committee that involves both staff and administration. When we make our decisions, we do not know the name of the student or their school – we use the TOPS ID number to keep it as fair as possible. More information on this can be found on our web page: www.topsprogram.ca
One thing I would like to clarify is that the entrance process for TOPS at MGCI and TOPS at Bloor are completely independent of one another. If you wish to apply to TOPS on Bloor, please contact them regarding their admission procedures.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday.
Sincerely,
Michael McMaster
Curriculum Leader of the TOPS Program