NCEA is New Zealand’s national qualification system for senior secondary students.  It is readily accepted overseas, including by universities.

 

NCEA comprises three levels of qualifications (Levels 1, 2 and 3) usually undertaken in Years 11, 12 and 13. It is a standards-based system attained by building up credits. To achieve NCEA Level 1 students need to have gained a minimum of 80 credits including ten literacy and ten numeracy credits.

 

Credits are awarded for each standard achieved in each course being studied (eg English, Mathematics, Science etc). Each course is comprised of a number of standards and these are assessed either during the year in class (internally) or in an examination at the end of the year (externally). For some internal standards, you may not be assessed until the final term, taking into account most of your year’s work.

All standards are set nationally and student work is moderated by outside experts. The standards themselves are linked to topics or skills. For example in English a standard could be Produce Formal Writing (worth 3 credits), and in Science it could be Investigate Selected Chemical Reactions (worth 4 credits). When you achieve a standard you receive the number of credits for that standard.

 

For achievement standards, there are four grades you can get: Achieved (A) for a satisfactory performance, Merit (M) for very good performance, Excellence (E) for outstanding performance or Not Achieved (N) if you don’t meet the standard. If you don’t achieve a standard for internally assessed standards, you may be able to be assessed again later in the year. For externally assessed standards, there is only one opportunity to achieve the standard each year - the exam at the end of the year.

 

NCEA is readily accepted overseas, including by universities.

More information is available on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website by clicking here.