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2018 Assessment Specifications for NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship External Assessment
A2018/05 - 13 Mar 2018

To:

Principal
Principal’s Nominee
All Teachers

2018 Assessment Specifications for NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship External Assessment

Assessment specifications provide the assessment parameters for each externally assessed achievement standard. They should be read alongside the applicable standards.

For examinations, the specifications cover information such as the:

format of the paper
equipment students can bring and use, and
context for questions, where appropriate.

For portfolio subjects, they cover the:

format of the assessment
portfolio submission date
portfolio specifications including the type and volume of materials that may be submitted as evidence, and
requirements for authenticity.

Assessment Specifications for 2018 were published in December 2017 on the NZQA website. For NCEA standards, see the NCEA subject resources pages and for New Zealand Scholarship, see the Scholarship subject.

2018 Assessment Specifications: March update

The following assessment specifications have been updated in March 2018.

Subject	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Scholarship
Chemistry	90932 90933 90934	91164 91165 91166	91390 91391 91392
Design and Visual Communication				93602
Drama	90998	91219	91518
Earth and Space Science				93104
Health		91235
Physics		91170 91171 91173
Te Reo Māori	91087 91088
Technology	91886 91887	91371
Visual Arts			91455, 91456, 91457, 91458, 91459	93306, 93307, 93308, 93309, 93310

(Updated March 2018) is highlighted beside the year on the front page of the assessment specifications, and the change is highlighted.

Teachers should not need to alter their teaching programmes because of this update.

Enquiries

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to your School Relationship Manager:

School Relationship Manager
School Quality Assurance and Liaison
Telephone: 04 463 3000
Fax: 04 463 3115
Email: firstname.lastname@nzqa.govt.nz