Itamar takes on the examiners - at every level

By STUART DYE

So you think your timetable is tough.

Glendowie College student Itamar Amith plans to pass exams at all three levels of NCEA - and Scholarship.

He is one of only 32 in the country who will sit all four levels of the new qualifications in the first year they are all available.

It means 12 three-hour exams over three weeks. But the 15-year-old is taking it all in his stride.

"I worked as hard as I could in maths and science and just felt I would be able to finish it all this year. I checked at the beginning of the year and found I could, with a few extra classes."

Itamar, who migrated from Israel two years ago, is taking calculus, statistics and physics at level 3 and Scholarship. He is also doing physics, biology and chemistry, at level 2.

Then, to "broaden my horizons", he is sitting level 1 exams in music, Japanese and English.

Itamar said the amount of revision he did depended on which exam he was preparing for - but physics was the one he feared the most.

Yeeli Amith, Itamar's mother, said she was proud of her son, but had not pushed him.

Andrew Kear, spokesman for the Qualifications Authority, said Itamar's timetable illustrated the flexibility of NCEA.

"This is one of the few chances in life for youngsters to try something different and with NCEA they are able to take it," he said.

"Within the bounds of timetable constrictions, and what individual schools permit, students can pretty much try their hand at what they like."

Of the 32 students nationwide studying all four levels, about half were international students picking up language credits and about half students who excelled in one area, but were trying basic studies in something different, Mr Kear said.

Itamar's last exam is on November 30.

Enough? No. He then plans to compete for a place on the New Zealand team entering the 2005 Mathematical Olympiad in Mexico.