Alberta Diploma

Overview

Alberta's diploma exams are standardized, province-wide exams that Alberta Education sets and marks for a defined list of Grade 12 ("30-level") courses. A student anywhere in Alberta who is taking one of these courses writes the same paper, on the same day, as every other student taking that course. The diploma exam mark is blended with a school-awarded mark to produce the student's final mark in that course. This file covers the diploma exam component of Alberta's high school system, not the full set of credits and other requirements needed for the Alberta High School Diploma itself.

Who can apply

Any student enrolled in one of the diploma exam courses writes the exam tied to that course; most are Grade 12 students, but mature students (a student who is 19 or older as of September 1 of the school year, or who already holds a high school diploma) and students repeating a course also write. There is no separate application: a school registers a student the first time they take a diploma exam course, but a student who retakes a course or writes again at a later sitting must register themselves through myPass, Alberta Education's self-service student portal. A student with a documented acute medical illness or another serious circumstance can apply directly to Alberta Education for a deferral or exemption from writing; a school cannot grant this on its own.

Exam pattern

For 2026-2027, diploma exams are offered in 12 courses:

Only these 12 courses carry a diploma exam; a Grade 12 student taking a different course in the same subject, or a subject outside this list, does not write a diploma exam for it. The English Language Arts and Social Studies exams are split into two parts, usually written on separate dates: a written-response part and a part of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. The Mathematics and science-group exams are written in a single session combining multiple-choice and numerical-response questions.

For every one of these courses, the diploma exam mark counts for 30% of the student's final mark in the course, and the school-awarded mark (built from classroom assessment through the semester or year) counts for the remaining 70%. This 70/30 split has applied since September 1, 2023, after the diploma exam weighting was temporarily lowered during the COVID-19 pandemic; Alberta Education's 2026-2027 bulletin confirms the same 70/30 split for this school year.

Marking and results

Diploma exams are marked centrally by Alberta Education using trained teacher-markers, with each student's name and school removed from the paper before it is marked. On the diploma exam mark itself (separately from the blended final mark), Alberta Education reports whether a student met the acceptable standard (a diploma exam mark of 50% or higher) and the standard of excellence (a diploma exam mark of 80% or higher), alongside the percentage mark. Province-wide, 82.0% of students reached the acceptable standard and 23.0% reached the standard of excellence across diploma exams written in the 2024-2025 school year.

A student's final mark in the course is calculated as (school-awarded mark × 0.70) + (diploma exam mark × 0.30). Results are posted to the student's myPass account, typically about three to eleven weeks after a sitting depending on the exam; Alberta Education no longer mails paper result statements. A student who disagrees with a diploma exam mark can request a rescore for a fee (CAD $35.00 for 2026-2027), which is refunded if the rescored mark comes back at least 5 percentage points higher than the original mark.

Important dates

Alberta Education holds five diploma exam sittings each school year: November, January, April, June, and August. June, near the end of the school year, is the main sitting and offers all 12 courses; the other four sittings are smaller, serving students who finish a course earlier or later in the year, mature students, and students rewriting a course for a better mark. For the 2026-2027 school year:

A student's own school registers them automatically for their first attempt at a course; a student rewriting a course, or writing at a sitting other than the one their school scheduled, must register themselves on myPass by the deadline for that sitting.

Fees

For the 2026-2027 school year: a funded Alberta student's first attempt at a diploma exam is free. A rewrite costs $35.00 (including GST) per exam for Alberta-resident and mature students. A non-funded visiting student (for example, a student not funded through an Alberta school authority) pays$55.00 per exam, whether it is a first attempt or a rewrite. Rescore requests cost $35.00, refunded only if the mark rises by 5 percentage points or more. All diploma exam fees are non-refundable and cannot be transferred to a different exam or a different sitting once paid.

After the exam

A student's final mark in a diploma exam course — the blended 70/30 mark, not the exam mark alone — is the mark used toward the credit for that course and reported on the student's transcript. Alberta and other Canadian post-secondary institutions use these final Grade 12 course marks, diploma exam component included, when assessing admission. A student who wants to improve a course mark can rewrite the diploma exam at a later sitting; only the diploma exam portion is rewritten, and it is blended with the same school-awarded mark unless the course itself is also retaken.

Preparation tips

• Know whether your course's exam is split into two parts (English Language Arts and Social Studies) or written in one session (Mathematics and the sciences), and plan your study time around the actual exam dates for each part.

• Since the diploma exam is only 30% of your final mark, strong, consistent classroom performance during the course still carries most of the weight; don't treat the exam as the only thing that matters.

• If you are not satisfied with a result, compare the cost of a rescore ($35.00, refunded only on a 5-point-or-more increase) against registering for a rewrite at a later sitting.

• Register for any rewrite yourself on myPass well before the deadline for that sitting — unlike a first attempt, your school does not do this for you automatically.

FAQs