How NCEA works, Ka pēhea te NCEA e mahi ai

NCEA stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) checks that qualifications in Aotearoa are of good quality. They work with schools across the motu to make sure that every NCEA qualification is set at the right level, and every level is assessed against the same standards.

Your NCEA results help employers and education providers – like divisions of Te Pūkenga, wānanga, universities and private training establishments – understand what you’re good at.

At school, you learn subjects from the National Curriculum, which means the New Zealand Curriculum (English medium) and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (Māori medium).

Usually, you study subjects for:

• NCEA Level 1 certificate in Year 11
• NCEA Level 2 certificate in Year 12
• NCEA Level 3 certificate in Year 13.

Understanding New Zealand qualifications – NZQA

You show how much you’ve learned in each subject by doing assessments throughout the year. You can do assessments in English or te reo Māori.

Your NCEA school work can be assessed internally or externally.

• Internals: This is work like essays, experiments or tests that you do during the year. It’s set and marked by your school. Independent moderators make sure all schools mark the same way.
• Externals: This is work set and marked by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). You might do external exams at the end of the year, or submit a portfolio of work.

Both internals and externals are assessed against standards.

Standards are skills or knowledge taught for each subject you take. There are 2 types of standards: achievement and unit standards.

Subjects where your assessments can be graded as:

• E for achieved with excellence
• M for achieved with merit
• A for achieved
• N for not achieved.

Subjects (often work-related, like hairdressing or carpentry) that can be graded as:

• A for achieved
• N for not achieved.

Each standard is worth a certain number of credits. You get the credits when you achieve the standard. The number of credits is the same if you’re graded with excellence, merit or achieved.

Whether you’re studying for NCEA Level 1, 2 or 3, you need 80 credits to achieve the level.

You can choose to do all 80 credits at the same level, or mix them up within allowed limits.

You need to achieve a 20 credit literacy and numeracy co-requisite as part of these credits.

Literacy credits show your skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Numeracy credits show your skills with numbers, measurement and statistics.

• You need at least 20 co-requisite credits from the new literacy and numeracy or te reo matatini and pāngarau standards to get NCEA.
• You can also get literacy and numeracy credits from approved standards for some subjects in the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

Literacy and numeracy requirements – NZQA

A merit or excellence endorsement shows you’ve worked to a higher standard. You can get 2 types of endorsement:

• Course endorsement – if you get 14 or more merit or excellence credits in a subject in one year.
• Certificate endorsement – if you get 50 or more merit or excellence credits at the same NCEA level.

NCEA endorsements – NZQA

You might need a certain type or number of credits to do the study, training or job you want.

If you know what you want to do after school, find out what NCEA credits you need.

• NCEA Level 2 is the minimum qualification for some jobs and tertiary education programmes.
• NCEA Level 3, along with University Entrance (UE), is needed for most university and tertiary education programmes.

Ask your teacher or career adviser for help.