Final Exams and Diploma Prep

2024- 2025 Diploma Exam Schedule

This bulletin contains information on exam schedules and significant dates in the school year; policies and procedures on security, registration on walk-in students, administration procedures, forms and samples, registration information, and marks, results, and appeals.  Information bulletins are written for all Grade 12 diploma exam subjects.  The purpose of the bulletin is to provide students and teachers with information about the exams schedules for the school year.  

General Information Bulletin 2024- 2025

Rock the Diploma

iPrepPlus

Success 2000

A & D Tutoring

ExamBank is a powerful resource for Alberta students.  They offer online study resources and practice exams in academic subject areas.  Ask your teacher or Ms. Grimard for the WCHS username and password and start writing your practice exams today.

This page has information on:

-digital tests and exams

-guides for students for each of the diploma exam subjects

-exemplars of the students' writing and practice questions

-support documents such as data booklets and scoring guides

-appeals and rewrites process

myPass registration and sign up (needed to obtain diploma exam results)

Diploma Exam Rules for Students

Calculator Information and Rules 

When your student is writing exams, it can be a stressful time for the home and family.  West Central staff hopes that the following information will help families and caregivers support their students as they navigate through the process of preparing for and writing exams.

Diploma exams are the Alberta Education (government) exams that are compulsory for Grade 12 students.  Presently, these exams are worth 30% of the student’s grade, with the remaining 70% of the grade coming from the teacher-awarded class mark that the student earns through their work in the classroom.

Diploma exam dates are decided by Alberta Education and cannot be changed.  If students or caregivers make the decision to miss the diploma exam date, a mark of 0 will be awarded until the exam can be written at a later session (offered in November, January, April, June, and August).  Students will not be awarded the credits for a diploma exam course without writing the diploma exam.  Course completion is comprised by the course mark as well as the diploma mark, so students may not opt out of writing a diploma exam.

The most important thing that caregivers can do to support their student is to be involved in their academic progress throughout the semester.  Attendance and assignment completion are essential components of success on any exam.  Please ensure that your student is attending class regularly, keeping up with assignments and materials, and seeking help from teachers as soon as they may need it.

Please see the sections on Study Tips to assist your student in preparing for the exams.

Time

A good rule of thumb for study time is to have time dedicated to studying each night.  It doesn't have to be a long period of time, but if this happens every night, the time can really add up.  Even if your student doesn't have homework, they should spend that time reviewing notes.  Highlighting handouts and worksheets.  Annotating.  Editing.  Revising.  Working on upcoming projects.  Adjust that time as needed.  Big unit exams, projects, essays, etc., will probably require a bit more time.  Put in the time that is needed to do well.

Distraction Free

Many students honestly believe that they have studied, when really, they have messaged, chatted, ‘grammed, and tweeted the night away.  Having your social studies notes in front of you while you do these things is NOT studying.  Social media and screens should be put away, the student should be studying in a quiet area, and if music is needed, it should be background, instrumental music without lyrics.

Partners in Studying

Test your student.  Have them study a few terms and then test them.  If they don’t know the material, study again, and test again.  Students have successfully studied when they know and can recall the material, not before.

Types of Learners

No one can tell students what types of studying will work for them.  Some people are visual learners.  Some are kinesthetic.  There are many kinds of learners, and each individual will have ways of studying that work best for them.  Some students need to rewrite information, some students need graphic organizers, some need flash cards, some need to discuss information, some need to quietly read and re-read, some need to highlight, etc.  It is up to them to find out what strategies work for them, but caregivers can be involved and monitor the methods and strategies that work and do not work.  If students are not finding success with one strategy, encourage them to try another one.  The bottom line is that students must be willing to put in the time and energy themselves.  No strategy will replace the work itself.

All of these strategies have support from cognitive psychology.

1.  Elaboration -explain and describe ideas with many details

-Ask your student about a text that they read in class.  Do they remember the characters’ names?  What was the conflict?  How did the characters change?  Symbols and theme?  

-Ask your student to explain a concept to you.  Liberalism?  Photosynthesis?  The Pythagorean Theorem?

2.  Interleaving -switching between ideas when studying

-One of the problems with studying is that students tend to study information in related chunks.  This makes it easier to remember at the time, but tests cover information from entire units or even an entire semester, so students need to be able to remember ideas and concepts from different places in the curricula.

-Study some terms from one unit, then switch and try some practice questions from another unit.  Practice doing things out of order.

3.  Retrieval Practice - practice bringing information to mind

-Retrieving information is exactly what students will need to do on an exam.  Reviewing notes and then covering them up to see if they can remember the information is good practice for this.  Again, studying has not been successful unless the retrieval is successful.

-put away class materials and write or sketch everything they can remember

-take many practice tests

-make flashcards and practice recalling the information as well as explaining the links between the ideas on them

4.  Dual Coding - combining words and visuals

-look at class materials and find visuals

-look at the visuals and explain in own words what they mean

-take information being learned and draw visuals to go along with it

5.  Spaced Practice - studying must be spaced out over time

-start planning early for tests; five hours spread out over two weeks is better and more effective than five hours all at once

-review information from each class after a break from class

-after you review information from recent classes, go back and study important older information as well

6.  Concrete Examples- specific examples to illustrate abstract ideas

-collect examples from notes and textbooks; exchange examples with peers

-link between the idea being studies and each example so you understand how the example connects to the idea

-explain your examples to others