Students swot hard for exams

Jessica Lasenby (left), 15, Elekis Poblete Teirney, 16, Sarah Taylor, 15, Ana Davies, 15, Jackson Preston, 17, Mount Maunganui College students, are preparing for the NCEA exams that start on Friday. Photo / Joel Ford

Tauranga students are gearing up for the biggest event of the year - school exams.

The end-of-year NCEA exams start Friday and senior students in Tauranga are hitting the books and revising their notes.

The Bay of Plenty Times spoke to a group of Mount Maunganui College students to see how they were preparing. All had their own particular technique that worked for them.

Jessica Lasenby, 15, was preparing for her six exams by writing colour co-ordinated cue cards for each subject and each topic within a subject.

"I even keep them separated in little snap-lock bags. They really helped in my mock exams," she said.

She had almost reached an Excellence endorsement in her NCEA L1 certificate and felt she would do well in the exams.

Elekis Poblete Teirney, 16, uses old exams from the NZQA website to help study for her six exams, and sticks Post-Its all over the house with notes: "My mum's not that happy about the Post-Its but they help."

Miss Teirney has an exam clash, so will be sequestered in a separate room with a supervisor watching her, a precaution to prevent cheating. As a result, she will be stuck in exam conditions for six hours straight, except for a 45-minute break.

Sarah Taylor, 15, will also use cue cards but was yet to start serious study.

"I find we're going over a lot of stuff in class so haven't needed to yet, but I am planning on getting on to it. I find it really hard to study, especially after six hours of school," she said.

She had already earned her Excellence endorsement.

Ana Davies, 15, studied the old-fashioned way - reading over notes and writing them over again.

"I don't work well with visual techniques. I think the hardest subjects for me will be science and maths, but I'm not really concerned about the subjects I'm not as interested in ..."

Miss Davies said she was "pretty sure" she will gain a Merit endorsement and thinks she will do well in English.

Jackson Preston, 17, said he was doing practice papers but was not much of a studier.

"I prefer to learn during the year, then when it comes to exams I already know it."

He will sit seven exams, three of them at scholarship level. He was confident of doing well and aiming for an Excellence endorsement.