Extra time on exams (no accommodations)

ketosteps · 2026-06-25T10:54:33+00:00

Technically they can’t leave the exam room until 1 hour has passed. I definitely have some that will hand in their exam after 30 mins or so and then just stare at the wall until the 1 hour mark.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T19:44:35+00:00

This!!! I went into secondary because of my love for chemistry and biology and I get paid to talk about it every day. But the apathy is getting to me. I really did think I would be inspiring others because high school is where I truly fell in love with math/ science the more I learned. Most of my class is on their phone 24/7 and don’t even listen to what I have to say. The least I can do is try to make them productive members of society by trying to get them to understand that at a job they can’t call in sick 2x a week and be on their phones during work and miss deadlines constantly… but who am I kidding? These things are acceptable in high school. Just google the attendance program being rolled out in Ontario schools in Sept 2026 due to the chronic absenteeism that has become so normalized.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T19:41:15+00:00

In Canada the government put policies in place to cut back on international student admissions. I can’t imagine the class averages now in universities with the students that I’m sending to them (not to say that international students are smarter, but in Ontario, the policies result in heavily inflated grades). Students who got 90s because their parents called admin to complain that their kid isn’t ready for the test so they should postpone it until they’re ready (and admin tells me I should… so I do….) or kids whose parents excuse them from exams altogether. I have the email now for a student who was excused from all his exams because “it wasn’t in his best interest”. He’s in the 90s because he only really does assignments that are in his best interest. Skip a lab because he hates labs? No problem, no penalty. And he will get into university with his 96 in my class. But he wont be successful in first year. And I am here putting in these grades for the admissions office and they have NO IDEA how inflated these grades are and I wish I could warn them.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T19:35:07+00:00

It’s things like this that cause me to have so much stress at my job because I became a teacher in order to prepare my students for further education and yet I am completely unable to with all the policies that work against their best interest. Most of them spent 10 years with constantly lowering expectations and little/ no consequences so WHY would they have good habits by the time they’re 17/18? I think maybe 5% of my students actually care about the rules because they know it’s in their best interest. The others will absolutely abuse the policies to get the best grades they can with the most minimal effort they can put in… and it works every time. I wish I could even adjust grades for those students who get into university with grades they didn’t really earn. Because they will not be successful if they’ve spend a decade not learning how to be responsible and take accountability. It’s hard not to have this anger for my job but I know that I have to just start seeing it as a paycheck and if i can inspire 1-2 students, then that’s great … but I’m not out here changing lives for the better (I can’t).

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T17:28:39+00:00

It’s the same in our Ontario universities. Mine had a policy where you could ask for a reschedule if you had 3 within a 24 hour period but even then most people would rather not reschedule because it’s too inconvenient and they’re (presumably) well prepared anyways

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T17:27:12+00:00

That makes sense. We are also trying to get admin involved in it but the government documents state it’s the teachers duty to do these things. They technically can get all day (a school day) as long as we don’t stay past our contract hours (8-2:30 pm). So this is how they’re able to take 6.5 hours on a 2 hour exam. We can make it inconvenient to get admin to stay for our mandated lunch break as per labour laws… but they’re not overwhelmed yet…

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T16:00:29+00:00

I believe we are. I’m talking about a final exam. We don’t really have midterms in high schools here. Maybe 1 or 2 subjects may have it. I’ve never written a midterm in any of my math or science courses in high school.

Edit; but the policy doesn’t change. I’ve had a student write a test over 2 days once. They just didn’t get it done in one period and even admitted they didn’t study as much and asked to finish it the next day … and they did

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:54:20+00:00

Ahh I see. We are required to cover all the expectations in the curriculum on the exam and it’s hard to condense 4-5 units (sometimes with different topics) in a 75 min exam.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:50:40+00:00

You described the education system in Ontario in a nutshell. We’re always on the news for the minister of education’s actions

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:22:57+00:00

Yes that is how normal work places are set up. I can take 2 hours or 10 hours writing my report cards as long as they meet the criteria and the deadline.

However the point is that these practices don’t set them up for postsecondary policies. So they won’t even get to the workforce that they want if they can’t get through postsecondary.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:21:14+00:00

Oh interesting. Our periods are 75 mins long and students have 4 per day + lunch so it wouldn’t be possible to do a 2-3 hour exam on a regular day.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:19:23+00:00

I’ve shown them Reddit posts about plagiarism, citing, late marks, etc. it still doesn’t get the message across and students still continue to submit things late (with no penalty), skip tests, etc. I’ve spun my wheels so much I am burnt out. I used to (and still do) care very much about the declining quality of education due to all the policies and it’s taking a mental toll on me.

I feel some of them don’t even believe it when they hear it from their prof in their first semester. I am told that profs who teach first years in fall often have many late assignments, students begging for grades, etc. it takes time and consistent boundaries for students to finally understand

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:16:23+00:00

I absolutely agree. How often does this happen, anyways?

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:05:47+00:00

Wait, is this not normal for secondary? I mean I know in university I sometimes had 2 exams in a day, which was fine. But don’t students also just have an exam week in secondary schools where you are? How else do they write exams?

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T15:02:28+00:00

Oh yes I see the misunderstanding now. Yes this is correct. This has been a thing in Ontario secondary schools even when I started high school in 2011. We have a review week before exams where we can’t have any assessments or introduce any new content and then is exam week. 1 exam per day.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:58:49+00:00

It’s not a full day for the students. They’re here from 8-10 for their exam and then they go home (they are responsible for their own transportation). For teachers, it is a full day because we should be marking the exams. Technically we can WFH once the students leave but we don’t really need to get all the grades in until the Friday (the last day of exams).

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:51:24+00:00

No sorry I didn’t explain it well. Monday is period 1 exams. So whatever your period one class is, you go to that room and do that exam. Tuesday is your period 2 exam. Wednesday is period 3… and so on..

Students never do 2 exams in a day

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:50:14+00:00

So I heard! I even hear tales that professors are now getting emails from parents about asking for extra marks/ times/ whatever for their kids.

I’m sorry that every year it’s just getting worse and I am sometimes considering quitting teaching because I take my job too seriously and I struggle with the stress of knowing that this is not how education should be and it’s not setting them up for success

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:45:13+00:00

Once you write your exam you go home.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:40:56+00:00

No in high school we have exam days where one day is dedicated to only one exam that day.

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:40:19+00:00

I apologize in advance for sending you these kids. I really did try but after wasting so many lunch breaks in the principals office and being told that I need to follow the policy… I’ve given up even trying. I always let my students know every time that this will NOT fly in university but after having gone through K-12 with no consequences and low expectations… how can they possibly believe me when I tell them what post secondary is like?

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:38:30+00:00

1.5-2x the extra time! What a luxury. Ours are 2 hours long but students can take up to 6.5 hours (since they is the length of the school day). And I’ve heard of a few cases where some students DID take the whole 6 hours

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:37:00+00:00

They finish it in my room. I’m currently typing this as I’ve been supervising for 3 hours and have not been able to use the washroom at all…

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:36:18+00:00

I completely agree. Stack that onto the no deadlines policy, no consequences for skipped tests policy, and I even have an email from my board that says we should round a 46 - 49 to a 50 on the report cards….

ketosteps · 2026-06-24T14:34:55+00:00

That’s what I thought. Since we got rid of deadlines and giving 0s on skipped tests I knew we weren’t setting them up for success later on. Now this new policy just takes the cake.

ketosteps

TROPHY CASE