NZCA Explained
For detailed information, please see the NCEA pages of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) website.
Qualifications
There are three NCEA qualifications: Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.
- 60 credits at the level (or above) of the qualification you are working towards
- 10 credits from Literacy or Te Reo Matatini standards
- 10 credits from Numeracy or Pāngarau standards
There are four different levels of assessed results for Achievement Standards:
- Not Achieved (N or NA)
- Achieved (A)
- Merit (M)
- Excellence (E)
Students who have been successful receive NCEA certificates at the end of each year of study (Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3). These certificates show that a student has achieved the required credits at a particular level.
Recognising high achievement
When students perform consistently above the “Achieved” level, their result(s) can be “endorsed” to reflect that high achievement. This can occur at either the Certificate or individual course level.
Subjects
For help with National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) subjects see the Studyit website.
Achievement Standards
Achievement Standards can be assessed by both internal and external assessment. Students can gain Excellence, Merit or Achieved in these standards.
Unit Standards
Unit Standard assessment is completely internally assessed. Students can only gain an Achieved grade for these standards.
University Entrance
A series of changes were made to NCEA and University Entrance in 2020, 2021 and 2022, following disruption from COVID-19. See the changes for 2022 here.
Assessment Requirements
There are assessment requirements for NCEA. Year 11-13 students receive this information. The paragraph that relates to authenticity must be emphasized. Students who copy the work of another student, allow their work to be copied, or pass off the work of another as their own, will receive a Not Achieved grade and will not have a further assessment opportunity.