@Jacob I am a History teacher at a public school in the province. There a couple of important points in regards to what Jacob has posted.

1. The English CEGEP system being at over capacity is not relevant. The MELS exams are the same whether in the French sector of English and simply translated.

2. There were no problems with material this year. Textbooks have been published for a few years now in all subjects, and all subjects had what is known as a "Progression of Learning" which is a fancy way of saying clear curriculum guidelines.

3. The marks were not particularly mailed out "late." It is the normal time period. It can be past the beginning of summer school in some areas, but the exact starting date of the summer session is to the discretion of each individual school board.

4. I have never heard of a school that "makes money" off of summer school. The extreme majority lose money on the service, and it is not required. It is again at the discretion of the school board.

5. The exams of those three subjects above were somewhat overly difficult. However, the most significant reason for the increased failure rate is that it is the first year in many that the exams were compulsory meaning that teachers had to "leeway" to boost marks. When teachers/schools are left to do what they wish with marks and exams, the grades are somewhat overinflated (the teachers show "pity" for lack of another word).

@John Merrington While the exams were difficult, no student is at a disadvantage in regards to CEGEP admittance over this. That is in fact the reason behind the exams of this year and the reason for the high failure rate: all students in Quebec had to write the same exams, marks had to be tabulated in the same way, and had the same overall value rather than a free fore-all. Prior to this year and for about the last three, a student in one school could receive a grade of perhaps 60%, while a student in another school could receive a grade of 80% and have the same level of competence/knowledge. Without MELS exams, schools had free range, and thus marks varied greatly from one place to another thus disadvantaging students in a more academically strict school. Furthermore, the exams supplied by MELS at levels lower than Secondary four were equally as difficult. However, no school/media/parents rendered complaints because if the marks are low, the school can simply "readjust" the marks. Trust me, not fair.

@Matt Good for you Matt. Now you need to educate yourself on learning styles. Not all children learn in the same way. The History exam should have evaluated your knowledge of History. Unfortunately, it was evaluating text comprehension and expressive skills. This is not an English exam. (And I won't get started on the quality of the English translation...) A multiple choice exam would have been a better choice for the History exam. As teachers we are taught over and over at workshops that exams should not be the only means of evaluation. So, why do these exams weigh so much? In certain cases, marks given by the schools were decreased because of the great disparity between the exam mark and initial report card mark. In other words, they are saying that teachers are unable to evaluate students properly. Wow... so teachers have no judgement. Are we professionals or technicians? We have what is most precious in our hands... you; the children; our future. You deserved your 86, not a 78. Now while you enjoy the joys of your success, do remember that not all students who failed are lazy and unattentive. Many struggle and spend hours studying to learn and this makes it all the more frustrating for them. Do the math... it makes no sense that so many kids are not succeeding. The repercussions of all of this might be terrible; kids dropping out of shcool, kids being medicated, conflicts at home, or even worse... So... all in all Matt... appreciate, don't judge.

@concetta Same exact situation!