NCEA (National Certificates of Educational Achievement) is the main secondary school qualification for students in New Zealand. NCEA is made up of three certificates at Levels 1, 2 and 3. In general, students work through Levels 1 to 3 in Years 11 to 13 at school. The NCEA qualifications are recognised by employers and used as a selection benchmark for universities and polytechnics.

Standards

Students will be assessed using NCEA standards which are categorised into internals and externals.

Internals

Internal assessments are carried out by the school according to guidelines, and are used to test skills and knowledge that cannot be tested in an exam, e.g. speeches, research projects and performances.

Externals

External assessments are generally tested through examinations at the end of the year. Some subjects may complete different types of external assessments, such as a portfolio.

Unit standards & Achievement standards

Standards are also classified as Unit and Achievement Standards. Unit standards are competency based, which means students either pass or fail. In contrast, Achievement standards are New Zealand curriculum based and can be completed at Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit or Excellence level. Completing any of these standards allow students to gain credits towards an NCEA certificate, with slightly different requirements at each level.

Credit Requirements

There are three NCEA levels, depending on the difficulty of the standards achieved. At each level, students must complete a specified number of credits to complete the level. Credits can be gained over more than one year.

Achieving with Endorsement

NCEA certificates can be endorsed to recognise high achievement in a significant number of standards.

Certificate endorsement

The requirement for a certificate endorsement is to achieve at least 50 credits with Merit or Excellence at the current level or above. For example, you may achieve NCEA Level 1 with Excellence.

Course Endorsement

Course endorsements may also be awarded to students who achieve highly in a subject. The requirement for a course endorsement is 14 or more credits at Merit or Excellence, and at least 3 of these credits from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards. For example, you may achieve NCEA Level 1 Mathematics with Excellence.

To find out more, check out the NCEA website here or get in touch with us!

You can also find a full guide to the NCEA programme here or download the pdf.