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Which students are writing the Chem 12 Provincial Exam...and why?

I was at the Chem 12 Provincial marking session last weekend. The numbers of students writing this exam is certainly less than a few years ago. For my own students, I'm finding that very few plan on writing the exam. We are a year long school so it becomes very difficult to motivate graduating students to study and prepare for an exam they don't need to write when it is getting warm outside and grad parties are in full swing. I would estimate that about 10-20% of our chemistry students write the Chemistry Provincial exam. When we marked the exam last weekend from the semestered schools, it was evident that only the high achieving and very low achieving students wrote the exam. The whole middle group of C to B students were missing. I would like to know what is happening in other schools with respect to which students are choosing to write the exam. Also, we had quite a discussion about in class final exams as well. Does everyone in your class write a final exam, or only the ones that don't write the provincial? Or is there no final exam?

Tags: -, Assessment, exam, final, not?, or

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Juan Pineda on February 11, 2011 at 1:29am

At Vancouver College, I have a final exam that weights about 30% of their mark. So B students have to keep working if they want their mark to remain levelled, C students may decide to keep working so things do not collapse completely. However, by that time the "die are cast". Those who are science bound have been accepted to the institution of their choice in a program they want, and others are going for a different post-secondary experience. The final exam results tend to be bi-modal (similar to the provincial exam distribution). Your observation is correct, those who are doing well and have scholarship money on the line will take the provincial, those who believe they can have a chance at improving their school mark (usually not doing too well) may sometimes take it.

My concern is at a more fundamental level, which probably is really shared by all of us... How to keep the students engaged/enthralled/fascinated with learning science when there are so many competing good things calling on their attention. Is there a way of sequencing our activities both inside and outside the classroom which will facilitate this process? An exam is one tool of measurement, but not the sole measurement of learning; and it may not translate into a deeper understanding of the reality at hand, but simply a mechanical exercise they get used to/good at. After all, how many high level questions are really incorporated into the provincial exam... Are the kids good in laboratory technique, can they design proper experiments--i.e., not follow a recipe, etc, etc?

Permalink Reply by Annette on February 11, 2011 at 1:31am

Very few of my students write the chemistry final. The only ones who write are those looking for scholarship money. I give an in-class final worth 20% of their grade. A student writes only one final, mine or the provincial. If a student does not show up for a scheduled provincial, they have an 'I' for a grade until they return to write my final exam (regardless of their class %). The course is not finished until a final is written. We do the same for all Grade 12 academic courses.

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