NCEA and scholarship exams begin

NCEA and scholarship exams begin on Tuesday with assessments in dance, maths and Tongan.

The Qualifications Authority said 121 exams would be offered over the four-week exam season, with about 144,500 students participating.

A group of Rotorua teenagers told RNZ they would be sitting their first ever NCEA exams this week, but they were not feeling terribly confident.

They admitted to being "a little bit nervous", "bad", and needing to study a bit more.

Most agreed that study groups were a good way to revise for exams, although they also recommended online tutorial videos.

Year 11 student Manatsu said sitting with her friends kept her on the books and off her phone.

"I reckon sitting in a group's better, because when I'm at home when I want to take a break I normally go on my phone and then I don't want to get off my phone. But when I'm here instead of going on my phone, I can talk to somebody else and they're like 'get back to work'," she said.

But Elly, in Year 10, said working in a group had some downsides.

"It can be a bit more distracting. I probably do more at home, on my own. But it's also good to ask information that you're not sure of," she said.

The Qualifications Authority said more than 97,000 students had opted to sit one or more of their exams online.

However, the group spoken to by RNZ overwhelmingly preferred pen and paper to screen and keyboard.

"I definitely prefer it in print because I like having everything in front of me and to write down my ideas and my solutions," said Year 11 student Samantha.

"Usually I prefer print because sometimes it's a bit sore looking at a screen for so long," said Year 10 student Emma.

Secondary Principals Association president Vaughan Couillault said schools found it hard to run practice exams online and that probably contributes to students' hesitance about digital exams.

"Most schools don't have the opportunity to get that practice in for students so I would say that's where a bit of that anxiety comes from, you know, is my computer going to crash, have I got the right amount of juice in my battery, is my screen big enough.

"There's all of those sorts of things which are born of the equity issue that we still see in that digital space," he said.

Couillault encouraged students to study regularly rather than cramming for their exams.

"Don't do a 12-hour day the day before. Do a few two-hour days leading up. And it's not just about reading over your notes, it's practising. When you look at the All Blacks winning at Twickenham, they didn't read a book on how to play rugby, they went out and practised, so do last year's exams, do the one before, do practice assessments."

NZQA deputy chief executive assessment Jann Marshall extended her best wishes to all students ahead of the exams.

"I encourage all students to give it your best effort. These exams are the last step before you can enjoy a well-deserved summer break," she said.

"I congratulate students for their hard work and dedication through the year and encourage them to seek support if they feel overwhelmed by the pressure."

Marshall said NZQA had worked hard to prevent any recurrence of problems that hit the online exam platform during last year's NCEA exams.

"The measures NZQA and the vendor have put in place allowed students to attempt more than 152,200 literacy and numeracy assessments in September, with the digital assessment platform performing well throughout the assessment period," she said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.