Information about NCEA 2025

Enrolling for NCEA

This will be done by Paraparaumu College. In Term 2 you will receive a card with your NSN (National Student Identification Number) - a 9 digit number that is unique to you, and information on how to access the NZQA website.  

Throughout the year you should visit the NZQA website to check your results have been correctly loaded and monitor your progress.

By mid August you will be required to confirm the external standards that you will be sitting at the end of the year.

How do I get NCEA?

Each Year 11 to 13 course is made up of standards. Each standard is worth a certain number of credits. There are two different types of standards:

• achievement standards which have four different grades: Not Achieved (N), Achieved (A), Merit (M) and Excellence

• unit standards which usually only have Not Achieved (N) and Achieved (A)

Some standards are internally assessed (the assessment takes place at school and your teacher marks the work). Other standards are externally assessed (the work is marked by somebody outside of school). External standards are often, but not always, assessed in the NCEA exams at the end of the year. Some external standards are assessed by submitting a report or a portfolio of work.

To get Level 1 NCEA you will need to have gained:

• 60 credits at Level 1 or above; and

• 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits (more about those below)

To get Level 2 NCEA you will need to have gained:

• 60 credits at Level 2 or above; and

• 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits (if you had not already gained them in Year 11)

To get Level 3 NCEA you will need to have gained:

• 60 credits at Level 3 or above; and

• 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits (if you had not already gained them in Year 11 or 12)

Literacy and Numeracy

To gain any level of NCEA, you need to have 10 literacy credits and 10 numeracy credits. These are gained by sitting online literacy and numeracy assessments that take place in May and September.  For literacy there is a 5 credit reading standard and a 5 credit writing standard. There is one 10 credit numeracy standard.  Teachers will decide when a student is ready to be assessed in each of the standards. If you do not achieve a standard, you can take the assessment again in the next assessment period. Many students will have already gained one or more of these standards while in Year 10.

For 2025 there will also be an alternative pathway to gain literacy and/or numeracy. This will involve gaining credits from this list of specified standards in a range of subjects.

Endorsements

Certificate endorsement - If you gain 50 or more credits at Merit or above, your NCEA certificate will be endorsed with Merit. If you gain 50 credits at Excellence, your NCEA certificate will be endorsed with Excellence.

Subject endorsement - In each of your subjects, if you gain 14 or more credits at Achieved or above, you will receive an Achieved endorsement for that subject. 14 credits at Merit or above will result in a Merit endorsement and 14 credits at Excellence will result in an Excellence endorsement. At least 3 of the credits need to be from externally assessed standards and at least 3 of the credits need to be from internally assessed standards (this rule does not apply to Level 2 or 3 Physical Education or Level 3 Visual Arts).

University Entrance

University Entrance (UE) is required to go to a New Zealand university. To qualify you will need:

• NCEA Level 3

• 14 Level 3 credits in each of three approved subjects

• UE Literacy - 10 credits at Level 2 or above from this list of standards (5 reading credits and 5 writing credits)

• UE Numeracy - 10 credits at Level 1 or above                                                                                                                                                                                  

You will receive a course outline for every subject you take. This contains:

• a list of topics to be covered

• standards being offered with the version number, number of credits, how it will be assessed, approximately when the assessment will take place and whether a further assessment opportunity will be offered.

Special Assessment Conditions (SAC)

These are available to students who have special learning needs which meet the criteria set down by NZQA. Usually students with SAC conditions for NCEA will have been using those conditions for school assessments in Year 9 and 10. Eligibility for SAC is determined by the school’s special assessment conditions coordinator.

Any work you submit for an NCEA assessment must be your own work. If all or some of the work presented for internal assessment is not your own work, only the work deemed to be your work will be assessed and a Not Achieved grade may be awarded.

It is important that you don’t:

• Copy material from a book, the internet or any other source (except when quoting that material directly and acknowledging where it came from).

• Use AI such as Chat GPT to produce work for you.

• Use or copy another student’s work.

• Get undue help from another person such as a family member, friend or tutor.

It is also important that you don’t help another student to produce work that is not their own by giving them access to the work you have produced for an assessment.

You need to meet the deadline for the completion of any NCEA assessment. To help you to do this you should keep a record of when each of your assessments are due and plan when you will work on your various assessments to ensure that they are all completed on time.

Sometimes you may not be able to complete an assessment by the deadline due to illness or exceptional circumstances beyond your control. If that happens you must complete an Application for Extension form and give it to your subject teacher before the date of the assessment. If your application is accepted, you will be given a new date to complete the assessment by.

If an assessment deadline is missed and no extension has been granted, you may be awarded a Not Achieved grade.

You need to be in class on the day of any NCEA assessment that is in the form of a test or other class-based assessment. If you are unable to be present for the assessment due to illness or exceptional circumstances beyond your control, let your teacher know as soon as possible and complete an Application for Extension. If your reason for being absent is a valid one, where possible, your teacher will either schedule the assessment for a different time or provide you with a further assessment opportunity.

If an assessment is missed and no extension has been granted, you may be awarded a Not Achieved grade.

Resubmission

If a minor error or omission has prevented you from achieving a standard, you may be given an opportunity to correct that. This has to take place before your teacher can give you any feedback or further teaching. The highest grade that can be awarded for a resubmission is an Achieved.

Reassessment

A further assessment opportunity may be provided if it is reasonable and practical to do so. This will involve completing a new task or the same task in a different context. You will receive additional teaching and learning before sitting the reassessment. Any student can do the reassessment (but you obviously wouldn’t bother if you had got an Excellence grade in the original assessment).

Appeals

You have the right to appeal any assessment-related decisions, including breaches of the rules, missed and late assessments, as well as grades awarded for assessments. First you should try and resolve the issue directly with your teacher. If this does not produce a satisfactory outcome you should lodge a formal appeal.

Appeals are to be made within five school days from the time of the event, or once assessed work is returned and gone over by the teacher. For all appeals, you will need to complete an ‘Appeal Application Form’ and give it to the appropriate Head of Department (HoD) to process. The Principal’s Nominee (PN) may be involved in the decision if needed. The decision made on the appeal by the HoD/PN will be final.

Derived Grades

If you are unable to sit an external examination due to exceptional circumstances beyond your control, such as illness or a bereavement, you may apply for a derived grade for the relevant standard(s).  You should notify the Principal’s Nominee, Mr Monk as promptly as possible that you wish to apply for a derived grade.

The derived grade must be based on authentic evidence related to the standard.  This will usually be the grade obtained in a derived grade assessment held during the year. It is therefore important that you prepare for and attend derived grade assessments such as topic tests and derived grade exams. There is no derived grade process for NZ Scholarship.

Digital Exams

In a lot of subjects you will have the option of sitting external standards digitally rather than on paper. Your teacher will let you know which, if any, of your external standards can be sat digitally and will record if you wish to do the exam digitally. You can find out more about digital exams here.

Your teachers, deans and other staff members at Paraparaumu College are all keen to see you achieve success in NCEA and will be working with you to meet that goal. However, the key ingredient in the mix is you. Here are some things that you can do to help ensure that you experience success in NCEA:

• Attend school regularly - every lesson counts and the more time you miss the more difficult it is to keep on top of things.

• Be engaged in your learning - make sure you are attentive in class, participate in class activities and do any homework that is set. If you muck around in class you will not be learning the things that you need to learn.

• Be organised - have a method for recording when assessments are due and a plan for when you will work on different assignments.

• Prepare well for derived grade assessments - you never know, you might need those grades at the end of the year and it is important that you are learning the content of the external standards throughout the year.

• Keep track of your credits - make sure you know how many credits you have and how many more you need.

• Ask for help if you are uncertain what to do or have trouble understanding what is being taught.

• Don’t get stressed - NCEA is not meant to make you stressed or unhappy. You may not always get the grade you had hoped for, but as long as you gave it your best shot, accept it for what it is and move on to your next challenge. If you do end up feeling anxious, make sure you talk to your tūhono teacher, a dean or one of the guidance counsellors.

Look after yourself - try and always get a good night’s sleep, eat healthy, get some exercise and spend time with friends and whānau.