The mistakes that cost the most points on the provincial exam

Year after year, it's not the students who don't understand the material who lose the most points — it's the ones who lose points on avoidable details.

Mistake #1: forgetting units or the requested rounding. A mathematically correct answer with no unit, or rounded to the wrong number of decimals, systematically loses points at grading.

Mistake #2: not justifying a key step. Ministry grading grids award points for the process, not just the final answer. A correct answer with no visible work is often worth less than solid work with a small calculation error at the end.

Mistake #3: misreading the question. "Solve" and "Simplify" aren't the same request, and a perfect answer to the wrong question earns nothing.

Mistake #4: forgetting to check whether every solution found is actually valid in the problem's context (a negative length, for example, doesn't make sense).

The good news: these are exactly the easiest mistakes to eliminate with a bit of practice and a systematic re-read — no need to relearn the material.