The diploma exam
What is actually on the Math 30-1 diploma, how it is marked, and a full sample exam in the same format. The exam is worth 30% of your final mark, and almost none of it is a surprise once you know the blueprint.
- 1. The shape of the exam
- 2. What gets tested, and how much
- 3. Numerical response, exactly
- 4. The formula sheet
- 5. What examiners keep seeing
- 6. Official practice material
The shape of the exam
The idea: 35 questions in two parts. The 32 machine-scored questions carry three quarters of the mark, and the 3 written-response questions carry the rest.
| Part | Questions | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Machine scored | 24 multiple choice + 8 numerical response | 75% |
| Written response | 3 questions, 5 marks each, equally weighted | 25% |
- Time: the exam is built for 3 hours, and every student may take up to 6 hours. Nobody is short of time — running out usually means being stuck, not being slow.
- Calculator: an approved graphing calculator is required, and it must be cleared and configured before and after the exam. Learn your model before exam day, not on it.
- Weighting: the diploma is 30% of your final mark and your school mark is the other 70%.
- Nothing is released: mathematics diploma exams are kept secure, so there is no paper from last June to find. The released items and practice test below are the real thing, published by Alberta Education.
What gets tested, and how much
The idea: the blueprint is published every year. Over half the exam is relations and functions, which is exactly where most students spend the least revision time.
| Topic | Emphasis | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Relations and Functions | 53%–58% | about 18 of 32 questions |
| Trigonometry | 27%–33% | about 9 of 32 questions |
| Permutations, Combinations, and the Binomial Theorem | 14%–18% | about 5 of 32 questions |
Relations and functions means transformations, inverses, exponents and logarithms, and polynomial, radical and rational functions — five of the seven units on this site. Questions are also balanced across three kinds of thinking:
| Cognitive level | Emphasis |
|---|---|
| Conceptual | 34% |
| Problem solving | 36% |
| Procedural | 30% |
Only about three in ten questions are a procedure you can practise until it is automatic. The rest ask what a concept means or put it in an unfamiliar situation, which is why working through explained solutions beats redoing questions you already get right.
Numerical response, exactly
The idea: eight questions are marked by what you write in the answer boxes. Losing one to a recording rule is the cheapest mark on the exam to throw away.
- First digit on the left. Any boxes you do not need on the right stay blank.
- Keep the leading zero. An answer of 0.25 is recorded with the 0 before the decimal point.
- Round once, at the end. Carry every decimal through the work and round only the final answer, to the tenth or hundredth the question names.
- Whole-number answers are asked for in words: the number of routes, the number of solutions, the value of k.
- Any-order questions give a numbered list and ask which items fit. Any order of the correct digits is marked right.
- Correct-order questions ask you to arrange or match, and the order of the digits is the answer.
Watch out: the boxes hold digits, so answers are built to be recordable — if yours comes out negative or as a fraction, you have almost certainly misread what the question asked for.
The formula sheet
The idea: a formula sheet comes with the exam. Knowing what is not on it tells you what to memorize.
Given to you
- The quadratic formula
- The laws of logarithms, including change of base
- The growth and decay formula y = ab^(t/p)
- The general transformed function y = af[b(x − h)] + k
- n!, ₙPᵣ, ₙCᵣ and the general term of a binomial expansion
- The reciprocal, quotient and Pythagorean trigonometric identities
- The sum, difference and double-angle identities
- The sinusoidal forms y = a sin[b(x − c)] + d and y = a cos[b(x − c)] + d, and a = θr
Not on the sheet
- The unit circle and the exact values of sin, cos and tan at the special angles
- Which functions are positive in which quadrant, and how to find a reference angle
- The exponent laws, and that logₐ c = b means aᵇ = c
- The remainder and factor theorems, and how to divide polynomials
- How to find an inverse, and what makes a graph a function
- Domain and range of radical and rational functions, and where holes and asymptotes come from
- The fundamental counting principle, and when order matters
- That amplitude is |a|, that period is 2π/|b|, and how to read a graph for them
The identities are all printed, so an identities question is never about recall — it is about choosing which substitution makes the expression collapse. The unit circle is not printed, which is why Angle Snipers and the unit circle tool on the trigonometry page are worth the time.
What examiners keep seeing
The idea: Alberta Education publishes what students did well and badly last year. The same items come up again and again.
Done well
- Finding the image of a point under a transformation, and describing translations and reflections with mapping notation.
- Solving exponential equations that can be written with a common base.
- Factoring polynomials and connecting the factored form to the graph.
- Coterminal angles, angles in standard position and arc length.
- Reading amplitude, period, phase shift and midline off a sinusoidal equation.
- Permutation problems with one or two restrictions, and arrangements with repeated letters.
Repeatedly lost
- Mapping notation for stretches, and counting invariant points for anything other than a reflection.
- Combining several logarithm laws into a single logarithm, or solving a logarithmic equation.
- Domain and range of a rational function that has a point of discontinuity.
- Trigonometric equations that need an identity substituted before they can be solved.
- Verifying identities that involve conjugates, double angles or fractions.
- Counting problems with three or more restrictions, or several cases, and specific terms in a binomial expansion with non-linear terms.
On the written-response side, markers report the same handful of habits: not answering every part of the question, treating algebraically as optional, describing transformations in casual language, dropping units, and sketching graphs without labelled axes or key points. Those are all free marks — see the written-response page.
Official practice material
The idea: use Alberta Education's own documents for real exam questions — everything on this site is written to match their format, not copied from it.
- Mathematics 30-1 Information Bulletin 2025–2026 — The blueprint, the instructions page, the formula sheet, and what markers noticed last year.
- Mathematics 30-1 Practice Test (2022) — A full practice exam from Alberta Education, with an answer key and sample written responses.
- Mathematics 30-1 Released Items (2019) — Real exam questions Alberta Education has released, with answers — the closest thing to a past paper.
- A Guide for Students Preparing to Write the Diploma Exam — Alberta Education's own study advice for Math 30-1 and 30-2.
- Diploma exams — overview — Exam dates, rules, accommodations and how results are reported.
Work the released items under exam conditions once you can do them slowly. Then come back here: every question on the sample exam is explained, and every unit has practice questions, quizzes and printable worksheets if a topic needs more work.