NCEA results released tomorrow

Thousands of Bay teens will be anxiously checking the NZQA website tomorrow waiting for their NCEA results to be posted.

More than 9000 Bay students sat their end of year NCEA and NZ Scholarship exams in November and December.

The results will go live on the NZQA website sometime tomorrow, although the qualifications authority warned it could not provide an exact time of release.

Tweets by @NCEAexams

What it all means
• NCEA certificates are built up out of courses, which contain standards, that each have a number of credits.

• Students must achieve a certain number of credits to gain an NCEA certificate.

• There are three levels of NCEA certificate, depending on the difficulty of the standards achieved. In general, students work through levels 1 to 3 in years 11 to 13 at school.

• Students are recognised for high achievement at each level by gaining NCEA with Merit or NCEA with Excellence.

• Both courses (or subjects) can have endorsement, or a student's entire certificate can be endorsed.

• Students will gain an endorsement for a course if, in a single school year, they achieve 14 or more credits at Merit or Excellence. At least three credits must be assessed during the year, and three during exams.

• A certificate will be endorsed when 50 credits are gained at either Merit level, for a Merit endorsement, or Excellence level, for an Excellence endorsement.

• New Zealand Scholarship are an extra set of exams that provide recognition and monetary reward to top students in their last year of schooling. They are released at a later date.

-Source: NZQA

What if you don't get the results you're after?
• Exam results time can be full of emotions for young people (and parents) - ranging from euphoria, surprise, envy, nonchalance or worst, being deeply disappointed. Parents need to think how they will consider their and their child's emotions if they are going to have a meaningful conversation about the future.

• NCEA is a good opportunity to talk about career aspirations, starting a conversation or thinking about a Plan B. Research confirms parents' influence on young people - therefore parents can play a key role in extending young people's career horizons, validating their effort and sense of options.

• If things don't go as planned, NCEA results can be reviewed, or there may be opportunities to achieve missed credits - talk to your school or NZQA. Tertiary providers may also have bridging courses or staircasing for those at the end of their schooling.

• Parents may need more information on what results actually mean for their young person - either Careers NZ or the NZQA website are invaluable resources.

- Source: Careers NZ