Year of study on line as exams begin

Otumoetai College student Finn Maloney, 18, will have sat 10 NCEA exams by the time the exam period is over. Photo / Ruth Keber

From marine biology to te reo Maori, 9671 students across the Bay of Plenty region are sharpening their pencils for more than 120 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams.

This number is made up of 4462 Bay of Plenty students entered at Level 1, 3754 students entered at Level 2 and 2554 students entered at Level 3. Some students will sit exams at more than one level.

The exams, which began last Friday, will run through until December 2 after which students will break for the summer holidays.

Otumoetai College Year 13 student Finn Maloney is halfway through his exam timetable.

The 18-year-old has sat five exams and has another five to do over the next few weeks.

Sitting this year's NCEA exams in chemistry, biology, physic, statistics and drama, Finn was sitting scholarship in each of the subjects too.

Finn said drama was his "sane" subject which kept his mind balanced with so many other text book-based classes.

However, his drama scholarship exam used up most of his exam preparation.

"I had to learn two monologues for it, so a lot of time was spent going over each of them again and again."

He also had to write one of the monologues himself, which he called A Game of Two Halves.

Finn said he probably had not done as much study as he should have leading up to his final school exams but said the main thing to remember was to not stress.

"The worst thing you can do, and I have seen so many people do it, is freak out the morning they have an exam and do three hours study at once, it's a bad idea. Nothing will go into your head. The best thing is to do small amounts of study a couple of weeks out from exams."

Finn said he hoped to study to be a veterinarian next year at Massey University in Palmerston North.

Deputy principal at Mount Maunganui College, Ady van der Beek, said exams had "gone to plan" so far.

"All the students seem to have a sense of purpose. There is a feeling of natural nervous anticipation and excitement but they are well prepared and ready for the exams.

"We have had a number of guest speakers talking to the students about the exam process and how to prepare for exams.

"We also have tutorial groups run by the teachers and provide mock exams for students to have a go at so we know they are ready and confident for exams," he said.

Nationwide, more than 143,000 students are enrolled to sit exams, which commenced with New Zealand Scholarship Drama followed by NCEA Level 1 Science, the country's first major exam session.

How NCEA works

*Each year, students study a number of courses or subjects.
*Schools use a range of internal and external assessments to measure how well students meet these standards.
*When a student achieves a standard, they gain 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.