A Foothills Composite High School student is breathing 20 per cent easier than her Grade 12 peers in the past.
“I have four courses this semester and that’s a lot,” said Grade 12 student Katie Stuart. “Having it 30 per-cent just helps me because my class mark is high enough… I have a safety cushion just in case I have an off-day for my test.”
Former Alberta education minister Gordon Dirks announced last March that effective the start of the 2015-16 school year, diploma exams will be worth 30 per cent of a student’s mark.
The remaining 70 per cent comes from the teacher for the student’s mark.
When the announcement was made last March, the then Grade 11 Stuart told the Western Wheel she had already began fretting over what she thought would be a 50 per cent diploma exam.
It’s not as if she is out of the woods yet.
Stuart has an exam schedule which would have had a young Stephen Hawking saying: ‘Isn’t this a bit much?”
She is taking Bio 30, Social 30, Chem 30 and Math 30-1 this semester.
“I am still nervous about them,” Stuart said. “But, for the most part, I’m starting to feel a little bit better about it because I see my class marks are high enough — depending how I do it can’t drop my grades that much and my teachers prepared me well… I hundred per cent support the government’s decision.”
She said 30 per cent is still a significant portion of a final mark.
The honour student admitted there could be the odd student who might coast for the diploma exam because it is worth 20 per cent less.
“Especially, if they have high marks in class they might not take it as seriously,” she said. “But 30 per cent is a lot.”
Foothills Chemistry teacher Jeromy Hall has prepared and marked diploma exams in his teaching career.
“I will talk about Chem, the provincial average going in is usually about 74, and the exam mark is 65,” he said. “Which on a 50-50 is a 4.5 per cent drop. With it 70-30 it means the overall average will be 2.5 to 3 per cent higher this year.”
Hall said the predictions are students will need at least a two-per-cent higher mark to get into programs like engineering.
He said students are putting pressure on themselves about a percentage number, rather than trying to understand the concepts of the subject.
“I think sometimes kids are stressing themselves with those numbers,” Hall said. “I tell the kids if they are nervous, great, if you are stressed, you aren’t prepared well enough.”
Oilfields High School principal Scott Carey said the drop in percentage hasn’t been an issue for the Grade 12 students at the school in Black Diamond.
