Do BC's Grade 12 Numeracy and Literacy Assessments Affect University Admission

Three assessments, one purpose

BC runs three provincial graduation assessments: the Graduation Numeracy Assessment, taken in Grade 10, the Graduation Literacy Assessment 10, and the Graduation Literacy Assessment 12. The province introduced the numeracy assessment in 2018, the Grade 10 literacy assessment in the 2019-20 school year, and the Grade 12 literacy assessment in the 2021-22 school year, replacing older provincial exams tied directly to specific courses.

These assessments exist to confirm that every graduating student can apply numeracy and literacy skills across subjects, not just inside one course. They sit alongside your coursework as a graduation requirement rather than replacing any course grade.

How they are different from a course grade

A course mark in Math 11 or English 12 is a percentage set by your teacher, based on your work across the term. The graduation assessments work differently. They use a proficiency-based scale rather than a percentage, and no BC teacher assigns the score. Because the scale is not a percentage, an assessment result cannot be averaged into your course grades, and it does not appear on your transcript as a course mark.

You need to complete the Graduation Numeracy Assessment, the Literacy Assessment 10, and the Literacy Assessment 12 to meet BC's graduation requirements. Completing an assessment is the graduation condition, distinct from the specific proficiency level you land on.

Do UBC and SFU look at the results

University admission in BC runs on your course grades. UBC and SFU calculate your admission average from a specific set of Grade 11 and Grade 12 courses tied to the program you apply to, the same courses covered in a typical BC admissions requirements page. Neither university lists the Graduation Numeracy Assessment or Graduation Literacy Assessment 12 as an input to that calculation.

Treat the graduation assessments and your admission average as two separate tracks. One confirms you meet BC's graduation standard. The other, built from your course marks, is what a university actually reads when it makes an admission decision. Complete the assessments on schedule so they do not hold up your Dogwood Diploma, but do not expect the result to move your admission average in either direction.

What this means for your Grade 12 year

• Book your Literacy Assessment 12 sitting through your school as instructed, since it is a graduation requirement you need before your Dogwood is issued

• Put your study time into your actual admission-average courses, since those are what universities score

• Do not delay your Literacy Assessment 12 into the spring of Grade 12 if you can avoid it, since a late completion can complicate your graduation timeline right when you need final transcripts sent

• Ask your school counsellor to confirm your assessment status is complete well before your target university's final transcript deadline

What the proficiency scale actually shows

Instead of a percentage, BC's provincial assessments report your result on a proficiency scale, describing how well you demonstrated the skill being tested rather than ranking you against a class average. This matches how BC reports classroom competencies more broadly under its curriculum, separate from percentage grades in individual courses. The result goes to you and your parents as an individual report, and schools and districts use aggregate results to track how students across the system are doing with numeracy and literacy skills, not to rank individual students against each other.

Because the scale is not a percentage, there is no direct math that converts an assessment result into points added or subtracted from your course average. The two systems, course grades and graduation assessments, stay separate all the way through.

How this compares across provinces

BC is not unusual in separating graduation literacy and numeracy checks from university admission criteria. Other provinces run their own graduation-level literacy tests, like Ontario's requirement, that similarly confirm a minimum skill level for a diploma without feeding into a university admission average calculated from course grades. If you are applying to programs outside BC as well, check that province's own rules rather than assuming BC's separation applies everywhere.

Where to confirm the current details

Assessment policy in BC has moved more than once since the numeracy assessment launched in 2018, including the phase-in of the newer literacy assessments. Confirm current assessment dates, the proficiency scale wording, and any graduation-requirement exceptions directly through the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care's assessment pages rather than relying on an older summary, since a specific rule change could affect your graduating cohort.