Scots College – Learning. For Life.

(National Certificate of Educational Achievement - NCEA)

NCEA has three levels, Level 1 (replacing School Certificate), Level 2 (replacing Sixth form Certificate), Level 3 (replacing University Bursary) and there is also NZ Scholarship for the most able level 3 students.

At least 50% of the year’s work in most subjects will be externally assessed, in general by means of a 3 hour examination, while up to 50% (depending on the subject) will be internally assessed. This external assessment will take place in all three of years 11, 12 and 13. Scholarship is assessed purely by means of a three hour examination (or a folio of work in the case of Graphics and Visual Art).

Why the change?

Many more students are staying on at school and in education beyond school. The old examination system didn’t cater for all those students and the new system is designed to bring under one umbrella the normal school subjects (such as those taught at Scots College) as well as a much wider diversity of areas of learning (such as food technology or car maintenance).

It is also felt that a global mark (for example “Maths 63%”) says very little about what the student actually knows. Possibly he could be very good at algebra and very weak at geometry, or vice versa, and yet still achieve the same mark of 63%.

How does it work in practice?

The curriculum content of each subject at each level is divided up into about five to eight ‘topics’ and each of these topics is either internally or externally assessed.

For each topic there will be an Achievement Standard (AS) which specifies exactly what the students have to do in order to ‘pass’, earning credits towards the NCEA. For each standard there are three levels of achievement: achieved (for the average student), achieved with merit (for the better students) and achieved with excellence (for the top students).

A few of the subjects at Scots College will be assessed by Unit Standards (US) which have been around for many years and which are similar to achievement standards except that there is no division into achieved, merit, excellence, and they are always internally assessed. Credits achieved via units standards have the same status as those from achievement standards as far as NCEA is concerned.

To achieve the NCEA students will have to accumulate a certain number of credits (see below). So each student’s official annual results (issued in May of the following year) will show:

• credits gained from the standards (both external and internal)
• grades (achieved, merit or excellence) for each standard
• examination results for the externally assessed standards
• the level of NCEA completed

After students have left school, they will be able to complete or upgrade their NCEA level. NCEA credits can be gained in most courses at polytechnics and colleges of education, and in accredited private and government training establishments and on-job training programmes.

NCEA results are recognised by tertiary institutions (both NZ and overseas) and employers. For some purposes, internal results may be more relevant; for others, examination results may be more relevant. But for most purposes a combination of all results will give a clear picture of a student’s achievements.

Learning v Assessment

It should be noted that all the above refer to the way in which the courses are assessed. What is being taught remains largely unchanged; that is, the subject being taught will continue to follow the current New Zealand Curriculum.

NCEA Level 1

To achieve NCEA Level 1, a student needs to gain 80 credits from all his subjects, with each subject being worth 24 credits. So a student doing six subjects needs to get 80 out of the maximum of 144 credits on offer. A student must gain eight credits (ten credits from 2011) each from English and maths, to indicate a degree of literacy and numeracy.

To qualify for a full NCEA level 2 course, a student needs to have achieved NCEA level 1. For individual subjects, a student needs to gain 16 out of 24 credits at level 1 (plus any stated prerequisites) to guarantee entry into the same subject at level 2, but as always, individual circumstances will be taken into account.

NCEA Levels 2,3

To achieve level 2 or 3, 80 credits are needed - 60 credits at that level and a further 20 credits which could come from a lower level

Endorsement for merit, excellence

The NCEA level 1, 2 and 3 qualifications is endorsed ‘with excellence’ or ‘with merit’ if at least 50 of the 80 credits are gained with excellence / merit respectively.  Subjects can also be endorsed if a student gains14 or more credits at excellence / merit respectively.

Flexibility

The new assessment structure is more flexible. An example would be if a student does half a year of a course and then finds it too hard, he could change course and pick up some credits in the second half year’s modules from a different subject while at the same time retaining any internal credits gained in the first half year.

Examinations NCEA levels 1, 2, 3

A student gains credits in each subject, some internally assessed, some externally assessed - see previous two pages. The externally assessed credits are examined in most subjects by means of three hour examinations in November (but not Visual Art, Graphics, Physical Education, Technology).

University Entrance (NCEA level 3, English level 2, Maths level 1)

Another important qualification is University Entrance, which entitles a student to a place at university. To achieve this, 14 credits are needed at level 3 in each of three subjects. Two of the subjects have to be from a particular selection of subjects but the third ‘subject’ can be a combination of two other subjects so that for example a student could get 6 economics credits and 8 biology credits Also needed are 8 English credits at level 2 (4 reading, 4 writing) as well 14 maths credits at level 1.  Please note: this minimum UE Standard no longer guarantees a place at University.  Students should refer to each University's prerequisites.

NZ Scholarship (Year 13)

In addition the most able students are encouraged to enter Scholarship in up to three subjects; each subject (except Visual Arts and Graphics) has just one examination. Students need to be aware that the Scholarship exams occur concurrently with the level 3 exams in November and this will mean several exams in a short space of time. A decision about whether or not to enter Scholarship needs to be made early in term 3.