141,000 prepare for examinations

11 November, 2009

More than 141,000 candidates are preparing for this year's NCEA and NZ Scholarship exams being held from November 14 to December 2, 2009. The first exams are NZ Scholarship subjects, Classical Studies and Agricultural & Horticultural Science on Saturday, November 14.

A total of 1.8 million individual NCEA standard entries will be attempted during the exams, including portfolio and language assessments. This exam period consists of 116 NCEA and NZ Scholarship exam sessions, with another 22 non-exam based external assessments.

This year's largest exam session is level 1 English with more than 47,000 candidates on Tuesday, November 17 and the smallest is Scholarship Latin, with 25 candidates on Monday, November 16.

More than 68,000 candidates have entered exams at level 1, as well as 55,000 candidates at level 2 and 36,000 candidates at level 3, with some students attempting exams in more than one level. In NZ Scholarship exams, 8,986 candidates will attempt assessment across 33 subjects.

This year there are six new Scholarship subjects. These subjects consist of Agricultural and Horticultural Science, and Visual Arts, which has now been replaced and divided into five separate subjects: Design, Painting, Print Making, Photography and Sculpture.

A team of 2054 markers from around the country will mark all papers by Christmas, with NCEA results scheduled to reach candidates in mid-January. NZ Scholarship results are due to be delivered in mid-February.

"NZQA is looking forward to seeing another successful exam season," NZQA Deputy Chief Executive, Qualifications, Bali Haque said. "We wish all candidates the best of luck in their exams."

2009 is the first year candidates in NCEA and Scholarship exams can sign-up to receive reminders and updates from NZQA through the social networking site, Twitter. No exam results will be sent via twitter.

Students wanting to receive messages must first sign up as followers of NCEAexams at: www.twitter.com

The examination timetable is available online here.

Examination 2009 facts and figures:

141,992 candidates made up a total of 1.84 million entries across a total of 351 NCEA standards.
There are 68,143 candidates with exam entries at level 1, as well as 55,937 candidates at level 2 and 36,371 students at level 3.
8,986 candidates have entered NZ Scholarship exams.
The largest exam session is level 1 English with 47,425 entries and level 1 Mathematics with 44,521 candidates.
There are 2054 markers.
There are 404 exam centres in New Zealand, with another 7 in the Cook Islands and 1 in Niue.
There are 557 candidates in the Cook Islands and Niue, with 504 candidates in the Cook Islands and 53 in Niue.

For more information contact:

Angela Perez
Media Advisor
04 463 3169
0274 5757 83
angela.perez@nzqa.govt.nz

Page updated: 11 November 2009