From not bothered, to not sitting them - Tauranga gets NCEA results

Former Mount Maunganui College student Samuel Taylor still sat the exams despite being accepted into Harvard University. Photo / File

Would you sit an exam if you didn't have to? One Tauranga student did, and he still killed it.

Former Mount Maunganui College student Samuel Taylor was neither here nor there about the mixed bag of NCEA results which were published to high school students this morning. He endorsed his maths with calculus and maths with statistics, both with excellence. His classics and economics were endorsed with merit.

An endorsement for a course is gained if, in a single school year, a student achieved 14 or more credits at Merit or Excellence, where at least three of these credits from externally assessed standards and three credits from internally assessed standards.

The 17-year-old gained a perfect score of 1600 points in the American standardised university entrance exams, known as the SAT, earlier this year and was offered a place at Harvard University.

Essentially, he did the exams just to prove he had paid attention. Which brought on questions from others as to "why bother?".

"It's a commitment thing to me. If a teacher spends a year teaching you something, then you should at least do them a solid and show up to the exam," he said.

His future was already set, so why bother?

"I'm just glad it's over and done and I can move on to my next adventure," he said.

Fraser Lellman is the father of former Aquinas College Tauranga student and cricket player Fergus.

His son is currently in South Africa representing New Zealand in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and Lellman suspected the results released today may have slipped his son's mind.

Being organised was a key part in balancing his academics and sport, and his time was structured around cricket.

"You've got to be well organised ... he just structured his time around training and tournaments," he said.

"He was always up around 5.30am, training in the mornings and making sure he's got those big chunks of time so he can study."

Fergus will study for a science degree at Victoria University in Wellington and will continue to play cricket.

On the other end of the spectrum, former Katikati College student Ciel Butler has not checked the NZQA website, and does not plan to.

Butler, a passionate equestrian, did not sit any exams as she had already secured a job at a racing stable.

"I just couldn't be bothered," she said.

Butler received a Blue Award for equestrian at Katikati College last year. The award was the highest recognition the given to students who have, by their achievement or contribution, brought credit to the school in either sporting or cultural activities.

She said while exams were not important for everyone to complete.

Otumoetai College principal Russell Gordon was "quietly confident" that his students would reap in results which showed a year of hard work.

Last year's exams felt different from previous year's with less nervous energy, he said.

He put this down to prepare for the exams and deliberate moves by staff to not raise any stress: more teachers in the exams so teachers did not need to yell instructions over 400 students, keep calm and avoid rushing.

"Having more staff there with the ability to wish kids well ... those little words of, 'you've got this, you can do this, you're ready for this'. You can't underestimate that."