High-stakes Grade 12 provincial exams to remain

While the province is changing its testing for some Alberta students, there is no relief in sight for Grade 12 students.

The province isdropping provincial achievement tests (PATs) for Grades 3, 6 and 9, replacing them with start-of-term literacy and numeracy assessments.

But final provincial exams in Grade 12 will continue to be worth 50 per cent of a student's final grade.

Ini Oladusu writes his Chemistry 30 exam next month and he thinks it should be worth no more than 40 per cent of his final mark.

"Maybe a bit higher than what we're doing in Grade11 but 50 per cent is crazy."

Frank Bruseker, president of the Alberta Public Teacher's Association, said teachers would prefer to see a final exam worth just 20 per cent instead of half of final grades.

"That's an awfully big load and creates a lot of stress for students knowing that half of their mark is based on one day's responses," he said.

Grade 11 student Dean Rawleigh pointed out thatsome people don't test well.

"If you're not feeling your best that day or just having a bad day it can really destroy your mark," he said.

"It's not really a good or fair representation of your actual intelligence."

Rawleigh said some students he knows scored poorly, hurting their applications to university.

The province has one change in store, however. Students will be able to receive and submit their provincial exams via computer by 2017.