Fairness of MEQ Exams questioned

In June, students in Quebec schools were writing final exams made by the Ministry of Education and as a secondary four student, writing those exams, I wasn’t very pleased with the context, meaning: the wording, the level of difficulty and the unjust questions asked.

Each year, all secondary four high school students write various MEQ final exams. In my opinion these students fall into two categories: those who think that there is no difference whether someone other than their teachers make up the exam and the students who go through a great amount of preparation to try reaching up to the standards of the MEQ.

I’m one of the students in the second category who studied all year and for countless hours in the days before the exams. I don’t usually get nervous for a final exam. For each exam, I stepped into the examination room with confidence because I had studied and felt extremely ready. However, once I started going through the exam, my confidence was brought down so low to the point where I felt as if I came in to do the exam without any knowledge of what I was doing. When I had finished, I came out, every time, thinking that I had done very poorly.

For some exams, like French and English, it is not required to study as much because you don’t know what will be asked. These (French) exams come in three parts: reading, listening and writing. Final French (as a second language) exams are the easiest exams every year, though the MEQ made it extremely difficult this year. In the reading part, there were stories that were challenging and questions to match. The writing part was even worse when it asked to refer to one the stories, already chosen for you, and write an essay. It was not enough that the story was already chosen for you but it was the hardest story there.

Though French and English were exams with no need for long studying time, there were three other subjects that needed a substantial amount of preparation.

History is the most important subject this year and any secondary four student would say the same because without getting a passing grade you don’t graduate. I, for one, studied three days nonstop before the exam, after really applying myself all year-long. Everything that was taught, I reviewed and reread until I thought I knew the history of Quebec and Canada by heart. I went to write the exam that day more than ready, until I received it and simply read the questions and I thought to myself, “I can’t do this”. The questions were anything but what I had learned or studied and the essay question was based on a topic that couldn’t be developed.

In general, the final exams this year were very difficult from a subject as easy as French to a subject as challenging as history and I figured that this is because of the MEQ. I think that they could be more reasonable with the questions they include in the exam, especially something as important as history which is required to pass. I understand that final exams should be at a certain level of difficulty but give students a bit of a break. We work hard all year long, we take the time to study. But when we get exams that involve little of what we learn and presented in rather strange and different ways from the way we've learned, it is unfair and unjust. The pressure of final exams is hard on us as it is, why make it harder than it need be?



Joanne Marinos

Laval Liberty High School