139,000 prepare for examinations

11 November, 2008

Last-minute study is underway for more than 139,000 senior secondary school students preparing for NCEA and NZ Scholarship examinations, starting on Saturday (November 15). Assessment of Visual Arts, Graphics and Technology portfolios is already underway.

Saturday's exams are Scholarship Chemistry, Classical Studies and Te Reo Māori. Exams will finish on Wednesday, 3 December 2008.

Nearly 1.9 million NCEA answer booklets have been delivered for nearly 120 exam sessions (separate answer booklets are required for each standard entered) at 410 exam centres.

NZQA plans to publish exam papers online by the end of the next business day after each exam.

Candidates will receive NCEA results by mid January and NZ Scholarship results in mid February. Marked NCEA exam papers will be returned to candidates from the end of January.

In Scholarship exams, 8996 candidates will attempt a total of 28 subjects, up from last year's 8171 candidates. This year Te Reo Rangatira has been introduced as a Scholarship subject for the first time, with 26 candidates.

This year's largest exam session is level 1 English, with 46,755 candidates, and the smallest is Scholarship Latin with 19 candidates.

"NZQA is working hard to ensure another successful examination season," NZQA Deputy Chief Executive, Qualifications, Bali Haque said. "We wish all candidates the very best."

The examination timetable is available online

Examination 2008 facts and figures

• 139,622 candidates have entered a total of 322 standards. There are a total of 1,867,160 million NCEA answer booklets.
  
  
• There are 65,662 candidates with exam entries at level 1, 52,811 with exam entries at level 2, and 33,772 with entries at level 3.
  
  
• 8,996 candidates have entered NZ scholarship exams.
  
  
• Each candidate will receive a personalised exam pack for each exam session.
  
  
• The largest exam sessions are level 1 English with 46,755 candidates and level 1 Mathematics with 44,556 candidates.
  
  
• The smallest exam session is NZ Scholarship Latin with 19 candidates.
  
  
• There are 410 exam centres in New Zealand and another 8 in the Cook Islands which will be supervised by 4407 supervisors.
  
  
• 2206 markers will mark the exams.

2008 2007

For more information contact:

Angela Perez
Media Advisor
04 463 4240
0274 57 57 83
angela.perez@nzqa.govt.nz