Starting the second week in January, preparation for the final exam had become intense. Students studied and revised their final exam subjects that were coming up. In my case, it was English and math. For my English class preparation, I worked on revising the texts that we studied during the whole course, practiced some reading comprehension tests, and wrote a few mock essays mimicking the final essay. For math, I solved many problems from all the units I had studied during the first semester, worked on extra practice tests, and made sure that I would not make any unnecessary mistakes on the real test. Teachers helped and encouraged us by preparing texts and resources for us to use, providing time during school periods to focus on studying and giving us hints about what would be expected on the day. I would stay up till midnight for 2-3 days before the exam dates, as I wanted to do as much as I could within the time that I had left.
My English final exam was on the 17th of January, and was done in two different parts; Part A and Part B. In the morning was Part A, the written component of the test; a critical analysis essay written about one of the texts we studied during the course, and linked to the topic to be written about. The topic would be something along the lines of “discuss the impact that the environment had on an individual’s identity” or something like “discuss the link between responsibility and happiness”. The essay would be 2-3 pages long with 3 hours to write, a critical analysis essay, and to be written about only one specific character in the text and the changes and shifts that have gone through him/her throughout the story. Part B was held in the afternoon on the same day; the reading comprehension text. This consisted of 65 multiple-choice questions. The texts in this test were both fiction and non-fiction; while some were from interviews and newspaper articles, others were from novels and Shakespeare. The essay was held in a classroom on the upper floor with the same class students, while the RC test was held in the school gymnasium; all grade 10 students who took English in the first semester had done their RC test in the afternoon. It was an interesting experience and sight, as I don’t often see the gym packed with chairs and tables and students focused on their papers. During our exam, the grade 12 students were simultaneously writing their Alberta high school diploma exams, which made the atmosphere even more nervous. After Part A of the test, I, unfortunately, was not 100% satisfied with my writing; after halfway through the essay, I started to regret my choice of text to write for the essay, which got me distracted and worried about the finish. Also, I was worried that I hadn’t written enough support and evidence from the story to prove my points, as I had a feeling that I was leaving something out. After I had finished writing, I had my lunch break and went to the gym to do the RC test at 1 pm. The reading comprehension test on the other hand was fairly easy, as it felt easier than the ones I had practiced with. At this point, I had a good feeling about my Part B grade, but not so for my Part A section. In the end, I got 71 for Part A and 78 for Part B and ended my English 10-1 class with an 80% as my final average grade that would go on the record.
My Math exam was on the 21st of January, 4 days after my English test. This gave me time to prepare and revise the units that I had visited during the course. This math test only consisted of one part in the morning; a test including multiple choice questions, written answers, and numerical responses. I worked on the practice questions and resources online for the remaining days. On the day of the exam, I was confident and didn’t feel that nervous, even though all grade 10 students who took math in the first semester were packed in the gym together with the grade 12 students writing their diplomas on the other side of the gym. After I finished answering all of the problems, I was happy and very excited for the 2-week holiday to start. I was also confident with the result of the exam, and couldn’t wait for the grade to come back. After all, my math final exam grade was 96, and ended my math 10C course with an average of 97.
During the 2 weeks of holiday that we had after the final exams, I felt completely free from school work and could enjoy time for myself and do the things that I wanted to do and just enjoy the time. I made myself a to-do list of all of the things that I wanted to do and complete during this time; cleaning up the room, watching movies, organizing and preparing things for the second semester, and practicing intense badminton for the upcoming tryout at the start of February.
On the 31st of January at Strathmore High School, the Alberta Student Leadership Council (ASLC) training session was held for students in Strathmore who were interested and who were going to participate in this grand event. ASLC is an event held once a year in high schools all around the province of Alberta, where students take the initiative and lead the event and the planned activities with other 500 participating students from other areas in Alberta. The host school’s students (in this year’s case, it is students from Strathmore High School who are interested) would be leaders for three days, organizing, planning, and creating an entertaining vibe in the school. It would be a chance for students from all around Alberta to engage with one another, create new friends, and a chance to get to know what other schools are hosting for this major event. There will be group activities, food and drinks, parties and music, and lots more for everyone to enjoy during the three days. We hosts need to make sure that everything runs accordingly and work together so that the event would be a success, and so that the visitors would have a good time. For this to be accomplished, we first needed to connect and bond to create friendship within each other, get to know each other, and understand what this ASLC event is. The training we had on this day was an orientation and workshop training session for four hours. During this time, we got to meet other interested people in the school and become friends with them. We played many group activities, brainstormed ideas and methods for the day, learned ways to handle the workload, and cooperated throughout the whole time. This was such a great chance for us hosts to get closer and understand this event. I had a great time doing workshops and training activities with students that I hadn’t met, or talked to before. This reminded me of my time in elementary school in ISN when I was doing UOI. It reminds me of the discussions, the group activities, bonding, and the problem-solving that I did for many years when I was younger. It felt interesting and I was surprised how this “method” of teaching and connecting a large group of people is used all the way in Alberta, Canada as well. It made me feel like the time that I spent doing UOI and all of the conversations and thinking was worth doing, as I realized that this “method” was truly a success in the training session. Everyone was happy and more confident than before, we all got to make new friends, and we all had a great time and were excited for the event to come. I had an awesome time.
