S.00-38
y
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC
?
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Senate
From: ?
J. Munro, Chair
Senate Committee on Academic Planning
Subject: ?
B.C. Secondary school students taking AP or TB exams
(SCUS Reference: SCUS 00 -3)
(SCAP Reference: SCAP 00 - 9)
Date:
?
March 17, 2000
Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies and the
Senate Committee on Academic Planning gives rise to the following motion:
"That Senate approve as set forth in S.00 -34 that Advanced
. ?
Placement or International Baccalaureate final course grades may
be translated for B.C. secondary school graduates to percentage
marks, in accordance with the following table, and used in the
admission average in lieu of other B.C. Grade XII courses:
AP Exam Grade TB Exam Grade
?
Equivalent B.C.% mark
5
?
7 ?
96
- ?
6 ?
90
4 ?
5 ?
86
3
?
-
?
80
- ?
4 ?
76
2 ?
3 ?
70
.A&wg
0
scus 00-3
Memo from
. ?
N. Heath, Director of Admissions
Simon Fraser University
To: SCUS
Date: 1999 12 16
)
ISubject.
?
BC Secondary school students taking AP or LB exams
?
I
BC secondary school students who take A? or LB courses have the option to take the
external exams offered in these programs. These courses are not strictly
"examinable" BC grade 12 courses, because the external exam is not compulsory, but
good students are normally encouraged to write the exams. University transfer
credit may be granted if the student takes the exam and scores well.
The Ministry of Education encourage the use of the external exam grade to
contribute to the final course grade. They prefer that these students not take both
the external exam and the government's provincial exam, to avoid unnecessary
cost. However, in my experience, most students in AP or TB courses take the
provincial exam and about half take the A? or TB exam.
In 1997/98 I assisted UBC in determining whether these exam results could be
reliably converted into percentage marks to facilitate ranking of applicants,
especially for scholarship adjudication. We mapped provincial exam results against
the external exams marks in several disciplines and came up with a conversion
tables as follows:
UBC currently use this conversion table for admission and scholarship. I recommend that
SCUS approve the use of this same conversion table for admission purposes.
Our current practice is to use only the school final or interim mark which is normally
given as a percentage. Typically, we ignore the exam result, except for transfer credit
determination. These external exams are very sound and are generally considered more
rigorous than the standard BC courses and exams.
0
BC Grade 12 AP/IB marks ?
1999 12 16
Examples:
Student has completed Biology 12 and AP Biology 12
BC BIOL 12 - final blended (school + exam) mark ?
93%
AP BIOL 12 - final school mark
?
99%
AP BIOL 12 - final exam mark 5 - converts to
?
96%
We take the better of the final BIOL or AP BIOL marks i.e. ?
96%
Student is completing English 12 and AP English Lit. and Composition 12
BC ENGL12 - interim mark ?
84%
AP ENGL - interim mark ?
79%
AP ENGL - predicted exam mark (if given) 4 - converts to
?
86%
We take the better of the interim ENGL or AP ENGL marks i.e. 86%
If no predicted exam mark is provided, we take the better
of the interim ENGL or AP ENGL marks i.e.
?
84%
/
nh Dec 1999
.
.
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