By Irene
“Oh, god, the provincial exam is coming!”
Which exam scares Grade 12 students the most? That’s must be the English 12 Provincial Exam. The proportion of the English provincial exam is much greater than any other exam in grade 12. As a result, it will affect your grade 12 final score a lot. Basically, the exam takes 3 hours. You will do it from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. in the computer lab and it usually contains a poem, a story and an informational text. The readings all have their own multiple choice questions and you need to write 3 essays in total. Two of the essays are worth 24 points and the other is worth 12 points.
Actually, our school did it very well in the past. The average score from the 2018 graduates was 14 percent higher than other offshore schools. What’s more, they were even higher than the independent (private) schools in Canada and only one percent lower than the Canadian local public schools.
Sherry (Grade 12) always said: “Oh, I just need a ‘pass score’. That will be so great.”
My classmate, Sharon worried about it a lot too. “Sometimes, the poem is so hard to understand. I can’t even figure out what it is talking about.” After we practiced more and more, it started getting better.
Here are some useful tips:
- Arrange your time properly. Don’t spend too much time on one multiple choice question.
- You can practice and improve your typing speed.
- Try to understand the Grade 12 English literary terms, not just recite them.
- Prepare some of your own articles that may fit the essay topics.
- Sleep early at the night before the exam.
Last but not least, don’t be afraid of it and also don’t look down upon it. You should not be discouraged if you didn’t pass it. That’s because you will have a second try later in June. Try your best. You can do it!