1.1 Current Exam Facts, Format, and Weighting
Key Takeaways
- The Social Studies 30-2 diploma examination is 30 percent of the final official course mark; the school-awarded mark is 70 percent.
- Part A Written Response is 50 percent of the exam (three assignments); Part B Multiple Choice is 50 percent (60 one-correct machine-scored questions).
- Each part is developed for 2.5 hours, and students may use up to 5 hours per part on Alberta's digital assessment platform.
- January 2026 diploma exams were cancelled after labour action; the April and June 2026 make-up sittings have now passed, and 2026-2027 runs the ordinary November, January, April, June, and August administrations.
- For 2026-2027 the rewrite fee is $35.00 (GST included) for Alberta-resident students and $55 (GST included) for non-funded visiting students; a rescore costs $35.00 (GST included), remarks Part A only, and becomes the exam mark even if it is lower.
Why diploma structure matters for Social Studies 30-2
The Social Studies 30-2 diploma examination is a provincial assessment developed by Alberta Education and Childcare through the Provincial Assessment Sector. Students who walk in treating it like a flexible classroom quiz usually study the wrong mix of skills. When the exam is written, it is 30 percent of the final official course mark. The school-awarded mark is the other 70 percent. That 30 percent is earned on a digital assessment platform, under secure conditions, from sources and assignments the student has not seen in class.
This OpenExamPrep chapter is independent study material that helps learners study Social Studies 30-2. It is not an Alberta Education and Childcare publication. It does not claim official approval, review, partnership, or exact equivalence with the Information Bulletin, the Program of Studies, or the diploma examination.
Structure is not trivia. Part A: Written Response and Part B: Multiple Choice are each 50 percent of the examination. A student who only drills multiple-choice stems has ignored half the diploma. A student who only outlines essays has ignored the other half. Each part is developed for 2.5 hours, and students may use up to 5 hours for each part. The extra time is published policy. Use it when a cartoon's target is unclear or when a third written assignment still lacks evidence.
Course name, key issue, and related issues
The course is Social Studies 30-2: Understandings of Ideologies. The key issue that organizes the course is: To what extent should we embrace an ideology? Diploma sources and written assignments keep returning to how far an ideology should shape identity, public policy, and citizenship. Memorizing disconnected headlines without a position on that question leaves both Part A and Part B under-prepared.
Four related issues unpack the key issue:
- Should ideology be the foundation of identity?
- Is resistance to liberalism justified?
- Are the principles of liberalism viable?
- Should my actions as a citizen be shaped by an ideology?
Hold those four questions in mind when a source appears. A cartoon about a security law is often a resistance-to-liberalism or viability-of-liberal-principles problem. A source about voting, volunteering, or protest often presses citizen action. A source about whether a person is a liberal, a nationalist, or a collectivist often presses identity. You do not label every Part B item with a related-issue number, but you do notice which ideological conflict the source is staging. Related Issues 2 and 3 carry the largest Part B question ranges; section 1.3 returns to those counts.
Social Studies 30-1 is titled Perspectives on Ideology. It uses the same key issue but demands deeper analysis. Social 30-2 still requires interpretation, evaluation, and argument; the emphasis is understandings of ideologies rather than the more demanding analysis expected in 30-1. A 30-1 practice booklet is not a drop-in substitute for 30-2 preparation.
Two weighting layers students mix up
Course weighting and exam weighting are different sentences. Keep them on separate lines.
| Weighting layer | Official split | What it means in a sitting |
|---|---|---|
| Final official course mark | Diploma examination 30 percent; school-awarded mark 70 percent | Classroom work still dominates the final mark, but the diploma can move a student across a reporting standard when it is written |
| Diploma examination itself | Part A Written Response 50 percent of the exam (three assignments); Part B Multiple Choice 50 percent of the exam (60 one-correct machine-scored questions) | The three assignments and the sixty questions are equal halves of the diploma |
A high school-awarded mark does not retire the diploma when the student writes. A thoughtful Part A does not retire Part B. Equal exam halves plus a 30/70 course split should drive the revision calendar: practise three written assignments and sixty source-based questions, with extra hours on whichever half currently scores lower.
Alberta reports diploma performance against two provincial reporting standards: the acceptable standard at 50 percent and the standard of excellence at 80 percent. Those figures are reporting standards. They are not a published raw number-correct cut score for the sixty machine-scored questions. Do not invent a rule such as thirty-eight right equals excellence. Equating is used so that standards stay comparable across administrations. A more demanding sitting is not supposed to punish a cohort relative to an easier one. Part B remains secured. Students should not expect to keep the booklet or to find next sitting's items in a commercial workbook.
What Part A and Part B each require
Part A is the written-response part: three assignments, 50 percent of the exam, typed on the digital platform. Assignments typically ask students to interpret sources, take a position related to liberalism or ideology, and defend that position with evidence and social studies knowledge. Later chapters of this guide treat assignment types in detail. The structural point here is simple: three tasks, half the exam, designed for 2.5 hours with up to 5 hours allowed.
Part B is sixty one-correct multiple-choice questions that are machine scored, also 50 percent of the exam. Questions are source-based. A booklet of cartoons, quotations, photographs, graphs, and short texts supplies the evidence. Cognitive demand splits between Understanding and Analysis and Evaluation and Synthesis (each 24-38 questions on the published blueprint). Blueprint ranges appear in section 1.3; the reading method appears in section 1.2. For format purposes, remember: sixty questions, one correct answer each, machine scored, secured.
Timing, platform, and permitted Part A aids
Each part is developed for 2.5 hours. Up to 5 hours is allowed per part. Plan a first pass that matches the 2.5-hour design, then use remaining time to revisit flagged cartoons, graphs with awkward axes, and written assignments that still lack a clear position. Finishing in ninety minutes is not a mark of strength if the third assignment is thin or if two graph items were guessed.
The sitting uses Alberta's digital assessment platform. Practise typing extended responses if classroom essays are usually handwritten. For Part A, students may use a dictionary, a thesaurus, and listed writing handbooks. Those handbooks must not contain social studies content appendices. A writing guide that hides a glossary of ideologies, a Cold War timeline, or sample diploma sources is not a permitted aid. Part B is not a research period. It is a secured, machine-scored source test.
Sittings, fees, and rescores after the January 2026 cancellation
January 2026 diploma examinations were cancelled after labour action. Affected students could write instead at the April or June 2026 sittings; both of those administrations have now passed. A student who did not write at one of them received the school-awarded mark as the final official course mark, with a transcript notation that no diploma exam was written. Anyone who reads the transcript sees that notation. It is not a hidden diploma substitute.
The 2026-2027 school year is back on the ordinary schedule, with administrations in November 2026, January 2027, April 2027, June 2027, and August 2027. In the November sitting, Social Studies 30-2 writes Part A on Friday 30 October 2026 and Part B on Wednesday 4 November 2026; in the January sitting, Part A on Tuesday 19 January 2027 and Part B on Friday 22 January 2027. Each part is scheduled for 2.5 hours, and every student may take up to double the scheduled time.
Published fees changed for 2026-2027, so a figure copied from an older bulletin or a tutoring-centre page will be wrong. For Alberta-resident students the rewrite fee is $35.00 (GST included) for each diploma exam to be rewritten. Non-funded visiting students pay $55 (GST included), and that fee covers first-time writing as well as each rewrite. Mature students pay $35.00 (GST included). Eligible Alberta students writing a regular first administration do not have a published first-write fee. Do not invent one. Fees are paid and registration is completed through myPass, and results are withheld until any fee owing is paid.
A rescore costs $35.00 (GST included). If the exam mark rises 5 percent or more, the fee is refunded. On a rescore the previous marks are deleted and the work is remarked by teachers who cannot see the original scores, so the rescore mark becomes the diploma exam mark whether it rises, falls, or stays the same. One published limit decides whether a rescore is worth requesting at all: the machine-scored component is not rescored. Only the written assignments are remarked. Request a rescore when there is a serious reason to believe Part A marking missed the argument, never as a gamble on Part B.
Realistic sitting decisions
A student with a school-awarded mark of 81 percent who had planned January 2026 in order to place a diploma result on the transcript, and who then skipped April and June 2026, now carries 81 percent as the final official mark with the no-exam notation, and would have to register for a later administration to change that. If that student's timed Part B practice usually sits near 60 percent, writing is a risk to the final mark as well as a chance to record a diploma result.
A student who wrote last year, neglected the three assignments, and now rewrites pays $35.00 (GST included) and must rewrite both Part A and Part B, because a diploma exam with two components is rewritten whole. Every mark goes on the academic record, but only the highest diploma exam mark is reported on the transcript. The rational rewrite plan treats Part A and Part B as equal halves again.
A non-funded visiting student should budget $55 (GST included) rather than assuming a lower figure. Confirm sitting rules on alberta.ca/writing-diploma-exams, in the General Information Bulletin 2026-2027, and in the current Social Studies 30-2 Information Bulletin before exam day. Use this section to lock the numbers so that source skills and blueprint skills in the next sections have a frame.
Under current Alberta Education and Childcare rules, what share of the Social Studies 30-2 final official course mark is the diploma examination worth when the student writes it?
Which description matches Part B of the Social Studies 30-2 diploma examination?
After Alberta cancelled the January 2026 diploma examinations because of labour action, what happened to a Social Studies 30-2 student who did not write at the April or June 2026 make-up sittings?