By Anna Bowden
Zoe Robinson will spend 24 hours sitting exams this month.
The 15-year-old Bay girl will finish up sitting eight three-hour exams after clocking up many more hours than that studying since late July.
Today, it's two down and six to go - and she's giving it her best.
Embarking on an impressive list of level 1 external exams this year including biology yesterday and English today, she still has chemistry, physics, accounting, Japanese, health and maths to come.
Zoe is one of 4000 Western Bay teenagers sitting exams over the next three weeks. Nationally, 150,000 are sitting exams.
Over the next 27 days, school rooms will be shrouded in silence while teens sit NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 and New Zealand Scholarship examinations. Today is the busiest day with nearly 50,000 students tackling Level 1 English - always the most popular exam subject.
This year's exams are the biggest logistical operation in the history of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which has had more than two million personalised answer booklets printed and delivered to schools.
For Mount Maunganui's Zoe, studying has become a routine. She began with 30 minutes a day but that has quickly expanded to many more hours at what is crunch time for secondary school students.
"I started studying at the beginning of term three," the Mount Maunganui College Year 11 student explains.
"I've got a huge amount of notes which I go over and a revision book I wrote out myself. When I wake up in the morning I do about an hour, I find it easier when I wake up because I'm fresh and it all goes into my mind easier."
Zoe writes then reads revision notes, has made flashcards and uses old exam papers for practice.
"I'd say I could have been a bit more prepared but Mum stopped me studying because she thought I was doing too much," she says. Mount Maunganui College principal Terry Collett said the message he had given students before they left for study leave was to ensure they strived to complete their courses. "By doing that they demonstrate to employers, themselves and to tertiary institutions that they have completed the course and completed it well."
Following biology yesterday, Zoe was low key, saying she'd answered all questions, which was important. If she takes the tips for beating exam stress: exercise, cut down caffeine and get lots of sleep - she and other students will be fine - if they've studied of course.
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