Recent Grade 12 Diploma Exam Results ???

[pdog15]

Just got wind of a family member who had a student who wrote the recent Grade 12 Diploma Exams and the results seems to be highly questionable. This student dropped about 20% overall on this particular set of Diploma Exams from her last marks that were submitted to U of A. The student had been accepted pending final marks but if this battery of tests stand, the student may well lose her acceptance. Another student in the same school dropped an overall of 35% and is dealing with the same issue - accepted to U of A pending marks but with these marks, the student will likely not be accepted.

Does this sound like it might be a particular school problem or does it seem to have a wider ramification. These students apparently recognized little or nothing on the exams that they had been studying during the semester.

Are other parents seeming to run into something of this nature as regards their children who wrote the last set of Diploma Exams?

[brownbomber]

My understanding is the diploma exam practice tests are to prepare you for the way the test goes the structure and such and what is expected. The theory should be there already from the class. Some people know the material but freeze with pressure of knowing what depends on the exam. Is their a challenge possible?

[FishingFrenzy]

Not super uncommon to drop 20% because of diplomas. The diploma exam is worth I believe 50% of the final mark. So say student has 90% on the course and gets 60% on the diploma, brings final mark down to 75%.

[pdog15]

The odds of these two students freezing on the exams is always a possibility but given their track records, is not to likely. If there does not seem to be a rather widespread concern over the marks, then it may well be the problem of an individual school. Hopefully there are such things as "supplementals" these days.

[brownbomber]

So you're saying the school didn't teach well enough or didn't prepare them for the exam well enough, or the teacher portion of the mark was not a realistic reflection ?

[Steven Noel]

Last year when I wrote mine, my five mark average I used for application dropped something like 0.6%... but given the weight they carry I saw several peers drop very substantial amounts. Bad day to have a bad day.

[260 Rem]

I've been retired for 12yrs ... But doubt there has been a lot of change from my experience which is: yes, it is possible for there to be a large difference between the school awarded to and the Diploma exam result. Could be lots of reasons for the differences for an individual student, but the two most likely suspects would include the "exam panic" theory.... And second, the possibility that the teacher structured in-school marks to include a greater emphasis on evaluations like essays, participation, etc ...rather than in-school tests...which generally produce a higher correlation between the school issued mark and the diploma exam mark. As principal, I always encouraged staff to structure course evaluation in such a way that there would be a high correlation between the school submitted mark and the diploma exam expectation... Recognizing the reality of post secondary admission policy. For what it is worth, the high school I administered always ranked in the top 20 percent of Alberta Schools by the Frazer institute.

[RavYak]

Originally Posted by pdog15

Just got wind of a family member who had a student who wrote the recent Grade 12 Diploma Exams and the results seems to be highly questionable. This student dropped about 20% overall on this particular set of Diploma Exams from her last marks that were submitted to U of A. The student had been accepted pending final marks but if this battery of tests stand, the student may well lose her acceptance. Another student in the same school dropped an overall of 35% and is dealing with the same issue - accepted to U of A pending marks but with these marks, the student will likely not be accepted.

Does this sound like it might be a particular school problem or does it seem to have a wider ramification. These students apparently recognized little or nothing on the exams that they had been studying during the semester.

Are other parents seeming to run into something of this nature as regards their children who wrote the last set of Diploma Exams?

Better to ask the students then us... Did they find the diploma exams that much more difficult then their classwork? If so then it could possibly be the school didn't teach them the proper material to be prepared for exam.

If they don't understand how they did so poorly on the exam then perhaps it was a grading mistake. I remember thinking my calculus exam must have been marked wrong because I thought it was really easy and got a surprisingly low mark on it(still high enough it didn't hurt my grade bad enough to worry about though).