|
NCEA is New Zealand's national qualification, standing for National Certificate of Educational Achievement, and is officially recognised both in New Zealand and internationally. NCEA started to be introduced in 2002, replacing School Certificate. By 2004 all 3 NCEA levels had been fully introduced.
Assessment of NCEA is composed of standards in each subject. There are two types of standard, namely Achievement Standards and Unit Standards.
- Achievement Standards allow students to gain different grades depending on their performance: Not Achieved (N), Achieved (A), Merit (M), and Excellence (E). Achievement Standards can either be assessed internally (at school during the year) or externally (in exams at the end of the year)
- Unit Standards only have one level of achievement - you either pass or you fail - and are assessed internally
Each standard has a credit weighting, or a set number of credits. These credits contribute towards students' National Certificate if the achieve in that standard (the level of achievement does not affect the number of credits gained). |
