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External Exams
A number of standards are assessed 'externally' - in other words, not by your teachers. A few of these (Technology, Visual Arts and Graphics) require you to submit a folio or collection of work.
The exam setting and marking processes  |
Most, however, have an exam to be sat at the end of the school year. These exams are written and marked by teachers contracted to NZQA for that purpose.
All candidates for a standard will sit the same exam at the same time wherever they are. All their scripts will be marked to the same standard.
Papers are personalised
When you arrive at your exam-room you will find a pack with the exam-papers for the standards you are sitting waiting for you. While you and the person beside you may both be sitting the Level 1 English exam, you may not have exactly the same papers. This is because you may be entered for a slightly different group of standards from your neighbour.
However, you will each have a pack of papers, each of which have your name and number on them and a bar-code. These allow your answer-script to be tracked and your marks accurately recorded against your name. While you may have a number of papers to work through in the exam, there will only be one paper for each standard.
Look at previous papers
You can read previous exam papers for the standards you're sitting. Use the yellow search tool at the top of this page to find previous year's exams.
Find related documents
As well as the exam papers from previous years you can also find the 'assessment schedule' for that exam. This tells you what the markers were looking for when they marked the scripts. You can also see the 'specification' for this year's exam. This tells you what the exam will be like - the number and type of questions, for example.
Last updated: 12 February 2008