NCEA Information

National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)

To complete an NCEA certificate students must earn credits. They attain credits by meeting standards in their chosen subject areas. Some standards, such as practical work, will be assessed internally by the school. Others will be assessed nationally in external examinations. Credits may be gained by achieving either achievement standards or unit standards.

Level One Certificate

• Students need to gain 60 credits from Level 1 or higher from standards not used towards Literacy or Numeracy.
• You must also pass 10 credits of numeracy that can be achieved through the numeracy common assessment activity done in Year 10, or, through standards from Mathematics and some other subjects
• You must also pass 10 credits of Literacy, either through the literacy common assessment activity done in Year 10, or from specified standards from English, Te Reo Māori and some other subjects, 
• Individual students are monitored to ensure they have adequate assessment opportunity available in order to obtain literacy and numeracy.

Level Two Certificate

• Students need to gain 80 credits.
• Of these, 60 must be from Level 2 or higher. The remaining 20 credits may come from Level 1.
• Students must also have met the Level 1 literacy and numeracy requirements.

Level Three Certificate

• Students need to gain 80 credits.
• Of these, 60 must be from Level 3 or higher. The remaining 20 credits may come from Level 2.
• Students must also have met the Level 1 literacy and numeracy requirements.
• NB: Level 3 courses are academically demanding and have recommended prior learning. Completing NCEA Level 2 does not guarantee entry into Level 3 subjects.

Certificate Endorsement

• Students are able to achieve Level 1, 2 or 3 NCEA with Merit or Excellence Certificate Endorsements.
• Merit Endorsement at a particular level requires 50 credits at “merit” or “excellence” at that level or higher.
• Excellence Endorsement at a particular level requires 50 credits at “excellence” at that level or higher.
• Students can accumulate merits and excellences over more than one year and their record will be checked annually to determine whether they are entitled to an endorsement of any NCEA certificate.

Single Subject Endorsement

• Students who perform exceptionally well in individual courses are recognised with a course endorsement at Merit or Excellence.
• The course name is the school name for the course. The endorsement is at the lowest level where the merits and excellences necessary come from.
• To gain an endorsement for a course student must gain all of the following:
  • 14 or more credits at Merit or Excellence from the course;
  • at least 3 credits from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards (Physical Education and Level 3 Visual Arts are the exception); and
  • the necessary credits in a single school year.

New Zealand Scholarship

• Scholarship is a monetary award to recognise top Level 3 students.
• It does not earn credits towards a qualification but does appear on a student’s Record of Achievement.
• Scholarship in each subject can be gained at two levels, either ‘Scholarship’ or ‘Outstanding Performance’.
• Candidates may enter scholarship in one or more subjects and this decision is made during the year.
• Students interested in scholarship should discuss it with their teachers early in the year.