Meaning, only 50% of what they did all year in class counts in their year end mark and 50% of their mark on one test makes up the rest. So a great year can be turned on its head by a real lousy exam day. If a kid is not feeling good on exam day, didn’t sleep well, has exam anxiety, panics, their mind goes blank ... chances are they can say goodbye to that great mark they worked so hard on all year.
Teachers have been calling for change for a long time and despite some mention of change from on high nothing has happened yet and won't for some time. A lot of money has been invested in developing the exam; training and paying teachers to mark it, field testing the questions and printing the exams (the cumulative weight of which made it necessary to enforce a whole floor in a building in Edmonton where the exams are stored, true story).
What you may not know is some universities have elected to ignore the exam and instead only consider the class mark. Some universities accept Alberta students even when their combined mark is below the standard cut off and some even reportedly add a few percentage points to the Alberta grades.
I didn’t know any of this until a teacher I know told me about a grade 12 student applying to Simon Fraser who received a letter in January saying not to worry about your diploma exam mark because they'd be looking only at her class mark. Her sigh of her relief blew papers of her teacher’s desk. Being that relaxed improved her class mark over the remainder of the year and she did really well on the diploma exam knowing that it was a pressure free, non-event.
The school system is a tricky one to untangle and understand. It changes from school to school, city to city and province to province. Every kid is different and every teacher is different.
There are few, if any, definitive answers to the big questions. Be it; “My kid is born in February should I start them early or late?” to: “Should I advise my kid to apply to a university that that will go easy on the admission requirements?”
Ultimately it depends what we want for our children. Is the hope that they come through it simply maintaining a love of learning or to be first in their class? To be happy and make friends and do their best, whatever that may be or come out of it all with a scholarship and a determination to change the world?
And when does what they want take precedence over what we want?
More links on the subject of the grade 12 exams in Alberta
Nova Scotia grade 12 students don't even write provincial exams in literacy and math anymore. article
Government Of Alberta - Education article with great comments from parents
Alberta's Education System is Better - MacLean's On Campus
U of C newspaper article -The Gauntlet
Good read - From a student's perspective
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