Opinion: Students sitting NCEA exams have plenty to deal with

NCEA examinations are well under way. Photo / Getty

It's been some time since I had to sit a school examination and I don't envy any of the thousands of Bay of Plenty students sitting theirs this month.

NCEA exams started on November 7 and yesterday 1651 Tauranga students, 726 Rotorua students and 666 students from the wider Bay of Plenty area sat this year's biggest NCEA exam - NCEA Level 1 English.

The number of students around the Bay of Plenty sitting exams this year is 4733 from Tauranga, 2235 from Rotorua and 1919 from other parts of the Bay.

Exams can be a stressful time for young people and not everyone deals with them with ease.

There are obviously students who thrive in an exam situation, while others, no matter how much preparation they do and no matter how many questions they know the answer to, may not do as well as they are capable of.

It's something I liken, as an adult, to job interviews.

I know people who deal with stress relatively well, they thrive under pressure and are more than capable of doing a job in their selected fields but fail in an interview situation for no other reason than they lack the gift-of-the-gab.

They can prepare and know what they should say to specific questions and have an answer for each but what comes out doesn't always come out as seamlessly as they had planned beforehand.

Then I know other people, who may not be properly qualified and may struggle with stress or workloads, who do exceptionally well in interviews because they know how to chat.

Then there are others who have it all and know it all and excel in all areas and some who lack all of what I have mentioned.

These are the same types of people I expect to be sitting exams this month and while I understand it's important to find out how much students know about subjects, I'm just pleased it's not the be-all-and-end-all of how they are tested.

Each student will have their own preferred way of learning. Some are hands-on, some are theoretical learners while others, for example, may even take more information in based on lyrics to a song.

People are different. The way people deal with situations can be different - and I think it's important we all remember that.

Good luck to everyone sitting their NCEA exams this month.