Why Canadian Universities Need a Standardized Admissions Test

Commentary As thousands of first-year university students approach the Christmas break, many are facing a harsh reality: they aren’t as smart as they thought they were. The average Canadian student sees their marks drop by about 10 points in their first year at university. A recent study shows almost half of students experienced a full letter grade decline from their last year of high school, with 23 percent having their grades fall by two letters or more. There are a number of reasons for this—the academic work is more difficult, university life is full of distractions—but there is a deeper issue as well: high school marks often do not accurately represent a student’s abilities....