Understanding NCEA

In the past, secondary school qualifications relied heavily on external assessment methods such as exams. This meant that often students’ performance throughout the school year couldn’t be taken into account. Another limitation was that exam marks were scaled so that only a certain number of students could pass.

The NCEA system gives a more accurate picture of a student’s achievement, because any student who demonstrates the required skills and knowledge to the level of a particular standard, achieves NCEA credits. Each student receives a School Results Summary that presents all standards taken throughout their school years, and the results for each.

Since NCEA was introduced, more students are leaving school with qualifications. NCEA is accepted both in New Zealand and overseas by the majority of employers and universities.

How does NCEA work?

Your teen studies a variety of subjects offered by their school. These subjects will have a range of standards that will be used to assess your teen’s progress. The standard describes what the student needs to know or what they must be able to achieve. For example:

• a History standard might be “carry out an investigation of an historical event, or place, of significance to New Zealanders” • a Mathematics standard might be “solve measurement problems involving right angled triangles” • an Accounting standard might be “prepare a report that analyses and interprets a company’s financial report for external users.”

Each standard is worth credits and students must gain a minimum number of credits to achieve each NCEA level (1, 2 or 3). You can see how many credits your teen gets for achieving each standard in the NCEA handbook you’ll receive from your teen’s school.

NCEA credits are earned through a mixture of internal and external assessment. Internal assessment takes place at school in several ways. For example through projects, tests set by teachers or practical work. External assessment is done once a year, through national exams held in late November/December.

Achievement and unit standards

There are two types of standards that contribute to NCEA: achievement standards and unit standards. All schools have their own curriculum that outlines their teaching and learning programme. The school’s curriculum is based on the national curriculum and achievement standards align to this. Achievement standards can be earned with achieved, merit or excellence, depending on how well the student performs.

Unit standards aren’t usually related directly to the NZ Curriculum and tend to be used more in workplace-related subjects, such as hospitality, tourism and engineering. Most unit standards are assessed as either achieved or not achieved.

Achieving NCEA level 1, 2 and 3

NCEA level 1

To gain NCEA level 1, your teen must achieve 80 credits at level 1 or higher. Eight of these credits must be from numeracy standards and eight other credits must be from literacy standards. These can be assessed in English or te reo Māori. Talk to your teen’s teachers if you are unsure about which standards give credits that meet the numeracy and literacy requirements for NCEA.

NCEA level 2

NCEA level 2 requires a minimum of 60 credits at level 2 or above and 20 credits at any other level. Credits can be used for more than one qualification; so some NCEA level 1 credits can count towards NCEA level 2. At level 2 there are no specific literacy or numeracy requirements.

NCEA level 3

For NCEA level 3 your teen will need to achieve 80 credits, of which 60 must be at level 3 or above, and 20 at level 2 or above. At level 3 there are no specific literacy or numeracy requirements.

NCEA certificate endorsement

NCEA certificates can be endorsed with ‘merit’ or ‘excellence’, if your teen meets the requirements for these. Your teen needs 50 credits at merit level (or higher) to earn an NCEA with merit, or at least 50 credits at excellence level to achieve an NCEA with excellence.

Scholarships

A scholarship is an external exam or assessment for top performing secondary students. Students usually enter in year 13, which is their last year of school. Scholarship exams are based on level 3 standards relating to areas of the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (the curriculum for Maori-medium schools) studied in Year 13.

A scholarship does not count towards NCEA credits or a qualification. However the fact that a student has gained a scholarship appears on the student’s Record of Achievement.

For more information about Scholarships visit the NZQA website.

Fees and financial assistance

There is an annual fee of $75 for students being assessed for NCEA standards. This fee covers all standards and up to three scholarship subjects. You may be able to apply for financial assistance if:

• you are getting a Work and Income or StudyLink benefit
• your joint family income qualifies you for a Community Services Card
• you have more than two teens studying NCEA in the same year – in this case it doesn’t matter how much you earn.

Ask your teen’s school or see the NZQA website for more information.

You can download and print this information as a fact sheet below.