Alberta Diploma Exam

Alberta Diploma Exam

The Alberta Diploma Exams are the provincial tests given to grade 12 students in Alberta, Canada. Results are an important factor in admissions to universities and colleges across Canada as exam results make up fifty percent of the course grade for grade 12 level subjects.

The territorial governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut follow and complete the curriculum of Alberta Education and therefore write Alberta Grade 12 Diploma Examinations. NWT and Nunavut do not have Departments that create and administer exams. They do however have an Education Department that manages schools and student needs etc.

Diploma examinations required to receive an official high school diploma in Alberta are English 30-1 or 30-2 and Social Studies 30-1 or 30-2.

Another factor in the introduction of Diploma Exams was to prevent the inflation of marks by biased and over-generous teachers. This puts grade averages significantly lower than the rest of the country. As one of these exams constitutes 50% of the entire course grade, the diploma exams are considered to be an important factor to standardize all high school students in the province.

These diploma examinations are special in the sense that Alberta, as well as the province of Quebec, are the only two provinces in Canada that require high schools students to write provincial wide exams.

Other high school courses are offered in Alberta high schools (such as Math 31-Advanced Mathematics) however, these courses do not require students to write a provincial exam.