One last time, and feeling lucky as exam season makes changes

By MICHAEL OTTO

St Peter's College student Andrew Scott sat the last Bursary accounting exam yesterday morning, and said he felt "quite lucky" to be able to sit a Bursary exam.

The 17-year-old, one of 3743 students sitting the exam, said it "wasn't too bad".

"After you've done a lot of revision you have a rough idea of what to expect," he said.

Bursary will be replaced next year by level 3 National Qualifications Framework standards and the New Zealand Scholarship, a new level 4 qualification.

This year is also the first time in 18 years that three sets of external secondary school exams are being held, and the NZQA feels it is ready for the biggest challenge in its history.

"We've improved our electronic systems and processes over the year, so I'm confident that 2003 will be another smooth run," said Kate Colbert, the authority's group manager of NCEA implementation and secondary education.

Ms Colbert said the exams, for more than 123,000 students, went well and no problems were reported to exam authorities..

At NCEA level 1, 10,250 year 11 students sat a two-hour information management exam yesterday morning.

Teachers were generally pleased with the standard of the exam.

"It was different from last year's paper and more students would have completed all the questions," said Craig Jacobs, Rosmini College information communication technology co-ordinator.

He said last year's paper was very bulky and a number of students couldn't get through all three sections.

Information management involves tasks such as interpreting data and analysing it using spreadsheets.

Mr Jacobs' comments were echoed by Auckland Girls Grammar School's National Certificate co-ordinator Yvonne Hayward, who said her students were happy with it.

Qualifications Authority chief executive Karen Van Rooyan said having three sets of external exams meant the NCEA had to mount an enormous logistical operation.

Year 11 students sit the NCEA level 1 Science exam this afternoon. They sit English and Mathematics exams next week.

The last exams are on Tuesday, December 2, and results will be mailed and posted on the internet in January.

Testing times

* More than 65,000 students are sitting NCEA level 1 exams, more than 40,000 will sit level 2 exams and 28,441 are sitting Bursary exams.

* The NCEA level 2 exams for year 12 students are the first national exams for that year since the last University Entrance exams were held in 1985.