Zhongfei (Victoria) Chen recently received an achieved grade in the 2025 NCEA Level 3 English external assessment.
Zhongfei (Victoria) Chen recently received an achieved grade in the 2025 NCEA Level 3 English external assessment.
A 9-year-old Hamilton girl, who moved to New Zealand less than a year ago, is now the youngest person to pass an NCEA exam typically taken by 17‑year‑olds.
The Year 4 primary school student, Zhongfei Chen, born in 2016, moved with her family from China to New Zealand last year.
Months after her arrival, Zhongfei, whose English name is Victoria, passed Standard 91472 and received an achieved grade in the 2025 NCEA Level 3 English external assessment.
NZQA has confirmed that since the introduction of NCEA, the youngest student to achieve a Level 3 externally assessed standard was 9 years old in 2025 – likely making her the youngest to reach this milestone.
Her father said she was not a genius, and rather her progress was made possible through New Zealand’s supportive system for personalised learning and appropriate educational approaches.
Zhongfei (Victoria) Chen recently received an achieved grade in the 2025 NCEA Level 3 English external assessment.
Knighton Normal School principal Andrew Campbell said the school was very proud of Victoria, and was happy for her and her family.
“As a school, we’ve been able to help with things like setting Victoria up with the dual enrolment programme with Te Kura, facilitating her NCEA examinations, encouraging her and giving her opportunities to stretch her learning,” Campbell said.
He said the credit should go to Victoria, who had a wonderful attitude and to her parents, who have supported and guided her along the way.
Her father said she also passed NCEA Level 2 for Chinese and only had about three months to prepare for both exams.
“I think she really likes to challenge herself, actually wants to do greater things,” her father said.
He said Victoria’s mother, Anne, who is a teacher, helped provide guidance and age-appropriate reading material while she was studying.
Martin said that when she isn’t studying, she also spends her time evenly between sports and arts.
He said his daughter’s advanced language skills began when she was just a year old.
“She already started speaking some simple sentences, and then never stopped,” he said.
Zhongfei (Victoria) Chen also spends her time evenly between sports and arts.
What’s next?
Martin said his daughter loved to challenge herself and has big dreams for the future.
He said she hopes to meet the university entrance requirements as soon as possible to allow her to study law.
“Because she speaks Chinese and Filipino, she also wants to pursue international relations and to be a professional diplomat.
“That is her dream,” he said.
Zhongfei (Victoria) Chen hopes to study law.
He said she also hoped to make a movie about immigrant life in New Zealand and establish an organisation to aid gifted learners.
Other young academics thriving in the New Zealand education system in the past included a pair of sisters who attended university aged just 13 and under.
At age 12, child genius Alisa Pham was AUT University’s youngest student, beating a record her sister set two years earlier.
Alisa was enrolled in AUT’s Bachelor of Communication Studies with a double major in digital branding and creative branding at an age when most other kids are in intermediate school.
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