Alberta Education finally caved and slashed the exam weight requirements. We were being penalized for living in this province and now that barrier is gone. Keep watching them because we forced their hand once and we can do it again.
April 6, 2012
Final supporters
Alberta High School students go through tremendous amounts of hard work and stress to get the grades they achieve. The last year of high school is always stressfull and emotional and to top it off we have to write standardized exams that are desgined for averages of 65-67 percent. This is greatly detrimental to a student's say, 80% in an academic class. Alberta High school students receive first class education but have to compete like no tomorrow in order to get into a good university because our averages coming out of high school are comparitively lower than other provinces. The reason for this is because their exit exams are not only notas difficult as the Alberta Diploma Exam, but also not worth as much. Alberta is the only province/territory in the entire country that has exit exams weighted at 50%. Us Alberta students are educated perhaps better than any other province in Canada, but have to compete for spots in top Universities such as University of Toronto which gives its priorities to Toronto graduates.This is incredibly unfair to Alberta students who statistically have been better educated than any other Canadian student. It is very unfair for a student's dynamic intelligence to be determined based on a 3 hour exam. A student works hard all semester to achieve high grades which can be completely ruined due to the weight of this exit exam. You may say that this will prove how intelligent the student really is, but with all that stress, pressure, and so little time to write such a big make-it-or-break-it exam, it is only logical to say many students will struggle. This is incredibly unfair. We shouldn't be told that we are only as intelligent as our Diplomas say we are.
Diploma exams are DESIGNED for averages of 65% The city-wide average of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English, and Social Studies dimplomas has not exceeded 67 in the past 3-4 years. This is insane. It's like they WANT us to do bad. Our hard work CANNOT be thrown out like this!
The weight of Diploma exams need to be changed!
Share with all your friends and family and get everyone to sign! We need at least 5,000 - 10, 000 signatures by July 15th! It doesn't matter if you're only in grade 9 or 10 or 7 or 8, you'll be in our shoes one day!
Updates
February 2, 2012
Alberta Education is still ignoring the thousands of students whose futures are being sabotaged by these absurd exam weights. I am reading your stories of ruined averages and mounting anxiety every single day. We are not backing down until they acknowledge that their testing policy is a total failure.
Reached 100 supporters
February 2, 2012
12 Comments
50% is too much, and with the condition that you can't even write the diploma again right after, students have to wait really long to boost their marks up Some students have to miss a year of university to upgrade so in my opinion it is necessary to bring the weighting of the diploma for the final mark down to 30%
The diploma exams are not an accurate measure of what one learns throughout the school year. Exams should not mark our ability to memorize a whole course worth of information out of our textbooks but rather our progress throughout the school year as growing individuals. One can argue that the diplomas pose a huge amount of stress on a student as it is MAKE UP 50% OF OUR MARKS all within the time frame of the two hours it takes us to write the exam. This is unfair to the students and teachers who work hard throughout the year.
Diploma tests are very stressfull and a exam to be weighed that much is suprising.It brings the avrage down so much.Even the best students may fail and bring their average down significantly therefore post secondary opportunities may be lost for some dilgent students.
Ridiculous that Alberta makes us jump through hoops just to get into the same unis kids from Ontario get into with way less effort. Lower the weight already.
My semester mark was 92 and the diploma dropped it to 84. It is so unfair how one test can ruin all the work I put in for 5 months. Please change this.
BALLISLIFE
Do y'all want us to fail?
Share this petition
Share this petition to help it reach more people.
Your share link
Alberta Education finally caved and slashed the exam weight requirements. We were being penalized for living in this province and now that barrier is gone. Keep watching them because we forced their hand once and we can do it again.
April 6, 2012
Final supporters
Alberta High School students go through tremendous amounts of hard work and stress to get the grades they achieve. The last year of high school is always stressfull and emotional and to top it off we have to write standardized exams that are desgined for averages of 65-67 percent. This is greatly detrimental to a student's say, 80% in an academic class. Alberta High school students receive first class education but have to compete like no tomorrow in order to get into a good university because our averages coming out of high school are comparitively lower than other provinces. The reason for this is because their exit exams are not only notas difficult as the Alberta Diploma Exam, but also not worth as much. Alberta is the only province/territory in the entire country that has exit exams weighted at 50%. Us Alberta students are educated perhaps better than any other province in Canada, but have to compete for spots in top Universities such as University of Toronto which gives its priorities to Toronto graduates.This is incredibly unfair to Alberta students who statistically have been better educated than any other Canadian student. It is very unfair for a student's dynamic intelligence to be determined based on a 3 hour exam. A student works hard all semester to achieve high grades which can be completely ruined due to the weight of this exit exam. You may say that this will prove how intelligent the student really is, but with all that stress, pressure, and so little time to write such a big make-it-or-break-it exam, it is only logical to say many students will struggle. This is incredibly unfair. We shouldn't be told that we are only as intelligent as our Diplomas say we are.
Diploma exams are DESIGNED for averages of 65% The city-wide average of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English, and Social Studies dimplomas has not exceeded 67 in the past 3-4 years. This is insane. It's like they WANT us to do bad. Our hard work CANNOT be thrown out like this!
The weight of Diploma exams need to be changed!
Share with all your friends and family and get everyone to sign! We need at least 5,000 - 10, 000 signatures by July 15th! It doesn't matter if you're only in grade 9 or 10 or 7 or 8, you'll be in our shoes one day!
Updates
February 2, 2012
Alberta Education is still ignoring the thousands of students whose futures are being sabotaged by these absurd exam weights. I am reading your stories of ruined averages and mounting anxiety every single day. We are not backing down until they acknowledge that their testing policy is a total failure.
Reached 100 supporters
February 2, 2012
12 Comments
Alberta Diploma Exams go against everything that University of Alberta teaches about fair Assessment. The teachers don't want a 50% exam. The parents don't want a 50% diploma. How in the world does the province continue to do this? What is their science behind this. It causes undue duress on students. How did they get away with this in the first place? The policy has no reasonable basis and hurts the mental health of students.
50% is too much, and with the condition that you can't even write the diploma again right after, students have to wait really long to boost their marks up Some students have to miss a year of university to upgrade so in my opinion it is necessary to bring the weighting of the diploma for the final mark down to 30%
The diploma exams are not an accurate measure of what one learns throughout the school year. Exams should not mark our ability to memorize a whole course worth of information out of our textbooks but rather our progress throughout the school year as growing individuals. One can argue that the diplomas pose a huge amount of stress on a student as it is MAKE UP 50% OF OUR MARKS all within the time frame of the two hours it takes us to write the exam. This is unfair to the students and teachers who work hard throughout the year.
Diploma tests are very stressfull and a exam to be weighed that much is suprising.It brings the avrage down so much.Even the best students may fail and bring their average down significantly therefore post secondary opportunities may be lost for some dilgent students.
Ridiculous that Alberta makes us jump through hoops just to get into the same unis kids from Ontario get into with way less effort. Lower the weight already.
My semester mark was 92 and the diploma dropped it to 84. It is so unfair how one test can ruin all the work I put in for 5 months. Please change this.
BALLISLIFE
Do y'all want us to fail?
Share this petition
Share this petition to help it reach more people.
Your share link
Petitions like this
Other petitions you might want to support
Scan to share
Anyone who scans this can sign the petition.
Alberta Diploma Exams go against everything that University of Alberta teaches about fair Assessment. The teachers don't want a 50% exam. The parents don't want a 50% diploma. How in the world does the province continue to do this? What is their science behind this. It causes undue duress on students. How did they get away with this in the first place? The policy has no reasonable basis and hurts the mental health of students.