Rotorua's biggest NCEA exam done and dusted

John Paul College student Dayla Taljaard was one of 726 Rotorua students to sit the NCEA Level 1 English exam. Photo/ Stephen Parker

NCEA Level 1 English had the largest number of student entries for the Bay of Plenty with 3043 sitting the three-hour exam; 726 were from Rotorua, 1651 were from Tauranga and 666 were from the wider Bay of Plenty.

John Paul College student Dayla Taljaard was pleased to finish the English exam at midday yesterday, her second exam this year after sitting Spanish last Thursday.

The 16-year-old had five exams to sit this year with science, business studies and maths coming up over the next few weeks.

Dayla said she naturally had nerves leading up to sitting an exam but was feeling "somewhat confident" as she sat three NCEA Level 1 exams as a Year 10 student, which gave her a head start on what to expect.

No in Year 11, she was happy with the preparation she put in for the English exam, mainly revising the book, a movie studied in class and she remembered strong quotes.

But when it came to studying techniques Dayla said she did not have a strict routine.

"I just do whatever I feel like on the day. For the English exam, some of the ways I studied was watching analysis videos on Youtube and I also went over some exam papers from last year," she said.

Dayla said she would be putting extra effort into her science and maths exams to get into the subjects she wanted next year.

"I want to get into biology next year so I need to try really hard in science," she said.

Dayla said she was thinking of becoming a speech therapist when she finished high school but first she was looking forward to completing her last exam on November 27 and having a break over the summer holidays.

Who's sitting?
NCEA Level 1 English:
Rotorua: 726
Tauranga: 1651
Wider Bay of Plenty: 666

Total students sitting exams:
Rotorua: 2235
Tauranga: 4733
Wider Bay of Plenty: 1919