Christmas Holidays are over and Grade 12 students all across Manitoba already have exams beginning this Tuesday.

SRSS English Teacher Andrew Unger says this is nothing unusual as Grade 12 provincial English exams typically take place early January. Nevertheless, he hopes that students did not stress too hard about them over the holidays.

“It’s not the sort of exam where you have to memorize anything. It’s all based on assessing literacy: Can you look at this material that you have never seen before and show you understand it by creating something based on the theme of the exam?”

Though this theme remains a mystery to both teachers and students until the moment the exam begins, Unger feels the Grade 12 students have little to worry about. “We go over all of the different aspects of the exam so that they are well prepared despite the two weeks off.”

The provincial English exam begins on Tuesday and will span over a four day period, taking a total of five and a half hours. Once students finish, the exam is marked anonymously by a group of teachers who grade each student’s writing and ideas based on parameters outlined by the Province.