<p>I go to a Canadian high school in BC. Recently a student from an American high school transferred to my school. We've basically been in the same AP classes up until a couple of weeks ago when she had to drop out of all of the lower level classes because she was getting marks in the 60-70% range. This student actually was top of her class with a 96% average back in the states. She said that the method of evaluation (the tests and stuff) were basically a lot harder in Canada to earn the "marks".
From reading past posts on this board I am also getting the feel that Canadian educational institutions are simply a lot more stingy on giving out "marks", whereas the states are more relaxed and rewarding with their grades.</p>
<p>Is this also the case at the university level (college for the Americans). Would a 4.0 achieved at a Canadian University be a heck of a lot easier to achieve at an American University?</p>
<p>I had a similar experience when I went to an US hs for a year.
In Germany, we only write one to two exams with only essay questions per semester in each class and 95% would be ridiculously high score. In the US with all those true-false, multiple choice and matching quizzes it's not too hard to score 95% if you are prepared.</p>
<p>I took a second year course (poli 240) at UBC last summer, and I actually found the marking scheme to be quite relaxed here. Overall, I got an A- for that course, even though my thesis only scored a ridiculously low 69/100. I assume that CDN universities like UBC must have grade inflations (where your marks are usually scaled higher). Therefore, it's not all that hard to achieve a high mark in Canada<< comparing to the two other high school AP courses I took back in New Jersey, hell that was alot harder.</p>
<p>"I took a second year course (poli 240) at UBC last summer, and I actually found the marking scheme to be quite relaxed here. Overall, I got an A- for that course, even though my thesis only scored a ridiculously low 69/100. I assume that CDN universities like UBC must have grade inflations (where your marks are usually scaled higher). Therefore, it's not all that hard to achieve a high mark in Canada<< comparing to the two other high school AP courses I took back in New Jersey, hell that was alot harder."</p>
<p>A highschool student taking a second year course eh? Wonder how you did that even through their continuing education program w/o a diploma yet? And no Canadian Universities like UBC don't have grade inflations. At least not in the sciences and I would highly doubt that there is grade inflation in the humanities as well.</p>
<p>By the way, if you haven't done enough research please do so at your own convenience. I took POLI 240 Currents of Political Thought (summer term) by registering through UBC's Office of Access Studies (requires a high school transcript, principal recommendation, and an essay on why you want to take a UBC course). </p>
<p>Grade inflation? I'm quite sure that this occurs frequently at UBC. There is no way I could end up with an "A-" when my final thesis only scored a "C+" (and the two other assignments I got also received "C" range grades). The TA definitely scaled the grade (actually she admitted the fact on our last day in class).</p>
<p>I agree that SOME canadian high schools are very stingy with marks. At my high school, I was about 3rd or 4th/300+, yet my avg was 84%, a measly 4.2/5.0 GPA.</p>
<p>However, some schools are very relaxed with marking scheme. Therefore, i really believe Canadian system should have Standardize testing as well :D</p>
<p>How right you are. The standards in Canadian high schools vary so widely - even within the same school board. Standardized testing would be a good idea.</p>
<p>yup, i know lots of people like that, who were getting mid to high 70s. But then they switched to easier schools for the last year or 2 years and ended up with high enough grades to go to waterloo, queens, mcgill, etc.</p>
<p>The parents of the ones with really low grades just sent their kids to private schools. I don't know what goes on at private schools in Canada but somehow their averages magically shot up 15 to 20 percent within a year.</p>
<p>They scale the grades like crazy. At a private school in my city, the mark received on the final exams is equal to what you actually got + half of what you didn't.</p>
<p>So someone with a 70 would actually get an 85.</p>
<p>private schools = buying your credit --- the standards are RIDICULOUS at private schools. If you can spell your name, you should get an 80 in english there at LEAST. But yeah, some Canadian Universities don't even take the difficulty of high schools into consideration. Standardized testing is a MUST in Canada, in my opinion.</p>
<p>"They scale the grades like crazy. At a private school in my city, the mark received on the final exams is equal to what you actually got + half of what you didn't.</p>
<p>So someone with a 70 would actually get an 85."</p>
<p>HAHA WOW ok so if you got a 0% or 1% on an exam, you'd end up passing?! WOW thats hilariously sad</p>
<p>As far as I know, no major Canadian university takes difficulty of high schools into account in the admissions process... so without a standardized test, the entire exercise is laughable.</p>
<p>Yeah, I can't help but agree with you guys. My average has always been around the high eighties in the past 4 years, even though with so much time and effort spent (e.g. sleeping at 3 in the morning EVERYDAY in order to study for some death physics/literature exam the next day). Teachers at our public school are certainly harsh markers. "Oh a B is good mark too, right?" is what they'd always say. And to make matter worse, my physics teacher just announced that he'd make the next unit exam "harder" and "scale down some marks" since the class average in the previous months was "way too high." Oh great...thanks alot.</p>
<p>Anyone's got any useful advice as to how I can combat such an abysmal situation? By the way, I live in BC.</p>
<p>In response to post #13, I'd just like to point out a system we have in Quebec.</p>
<p>Here, we have to go to a mandatory 2 year CEGEP (a bit like community college) before going to university. Since the unversities recognize that it is hard to judge the marks that a student gets from CEGEP because each varies in standards, we have developed a system called the R-Score.</p>
<p>Basically, it's a weighted score that takes into account:
-your mark for the course
-the average of your class
-the average mark for that course in your school and
-the average mark for that course in the whole province.
They do some weird mumbojumbo with it (some complicated formula) and gives out a number (the R-Score) for each course. Theoretically, the lowest R-Score you can get for a course is around 18 while the highest is around 42.
The higher up you are from the provincial, school and class average, the higher your R-Score will be. (ie. if you have a 95% and the class average is 70, you will have a higher R-Score than if you have the same mark in a class with an average of 85)</p>
<p>Your R-Score is an average of the R-Score for each course. Quebec universities only look at the R-Score for Quebec applicants and not actual the % marks. I find this incredibly useful against unfair grade inflation and this has been working very well in our province thus far.</p>
<p>IMO, the people who got grade inflation isn't going to help them in the long run. An acceptance in to university is an invitation for further competition. How well do you think the people who had grade inflations in hs will hold against us who worked hard, slept at 3am (i slept at about 12am lol) everyday? Don't worry, the world is fair, god is fair. Those who bought their grades will not be better than you :D</p>
<p>However i do admit that grade deflation is going to majorly affect our chances at American schools, it certainly brought down my chances.
Although i have learned, if you are a hardworking person, you'll be successful regardless of where you go. Good luck my comrades :D
I wish you all the best</p>