Grades and university admission in Canada?
Asked by mogu mogu paku pakuAs far as I'm aware, Canadian universities consider applicants chiefly on the basis of the grades they receive at school. Of course, there are other factors - extracurriculars, etc. - but I do notice a lack of standardised exams in Canada (no "Canadian college entrance exam" or A-levels; SATs and APs not required). The University of Toronto, for instance, quotes required levels of achievement in GPA percentages: "low 80s" for Biological Chemistry, "low to mid 70s" for French. Now, my question is... isn't it possible that some high schools grade their students easier than others? Perhaps 85% from an elite school is harder to achieve than 100% from a rural one-room schoolhouse? Or is there some government agency that enforces a consistent grading standard across all schools?
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Answered by junkee
When i was in high school, applying to universities, I had a teacher who worked in various schools explain this to me. He said that suburban high schools have higher standards for marking their students. It's basically based on a bell curve whether they realize it or not. Students in those schools do better on average than a student in an urban high school and when teachers grade a paper, for example, they are comparing the best ones to the worst ones. So if you take a 70% paper from the suburban high school, and compare it one one in an urban high school it may be the best one, therefore the teacher would grade it 90%+. So as a "B" student in a suburban high school, I said to him, why don't i just switch schools and get 90's in the "bad" school that way UofT would accept me for sure. He said, that it would be pointless because they do take into consideration what school your coming from. I highly doubt it though, how are the universities possibly going to know which schools mark harder. Anyways, i did end up getting accepted, so you never know. Good Luck!
When i was in high school, applying to universities, I had a teacher who worked in various schools explain this to me. He said that suburban high schools have higher standards for marking their students. It's basically based on a bell curve whether they realize it or not. Students in those schools do better on average than a student in an urban high school and when teachers grade a paper, for example, they are comparing the best ones to the worst ones. So if you take a 70% paper from the suburban high school, and compare it one one in an urban high school it may be the best one, therefore the teacher would grade it 90%+. So as a "B" student in a suburban high school, I said to him, why don't i just switch schools and get 90's in the "bad" school that way UofT would accept me for sure. He said, that it would be pointless because they do take into consideration what school your coming from. I highly doubt it though, how are the universities possibly going to know which schools mark harder. Anyways, i did end up getting accepted, so you never know. Good Luck!
