Study Wānanga helps Whangārei students prep for NCEA exams

As thousands of Northland students get ready for the impending NCEA exams, two Kamo High School pupils are feeling better prepared after a three-day study wānanga.

NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams kick off next Wednesday with about 140,000 students throughout the country, 4375 in Northland, expected to sit papers over the next month.

To help students prepare, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa held a three-day Study Wananga at its Whangārei campus last weekend where students were able to study in a relaxed environment with help from teachers.

Kamo High School students Zakari Chapman, year 13, and Te Arorangi Moore, year 11, said they both felt better prepared for their upcoming exams after the wānanga.

"It was a chilled out atmosphere and I thrive in that environment... I felt like I accomplished a lot," Chapman said.

Moore agreed: "Maths was the one I was most worried about but now I'm feeling pretty confident I'll pass," he said.

Chapman is sitting exams in health, statistics, physics and English.

He plans to go to university next year to study a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce, so he was most nervous about his statistics exam. But during the Study Wānanga he was able to spend three hours with a maths teacher.

"In class we went over things that we already covered at the wānanga so I felt like I was ahead and it took pressure off me to keep up with the class," he said.

Meanwhile Moore, who was sitting NCEA exams for the first time, said being around people who were driven to study, made him want to study too.

"I was able to get some good help with my study for the maths exams. I got one-on-one time with one of the teachers which was really good," he said.

Robyn Reihana, school services team leader for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, said the Study Wānanga was a pilot which evolved out of an initiative called iNative Homework Hub, a place students can go after school once a week to get support.

"We saw the need for senior students to have more intense workshops around preparing for NCEA exams... This is to relieve the stress before exams and make sure they're prepped."

There are 1949 students enrolled to sit NCEA level 1 exams, 1533 for level 2, and 1098 for level 3.