The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has released provisional NCEA attainment data from 2025.
NCEA and University Entrance attainment
Attainment at all three levels of NCEA and University Entrance has remained steady compared to 2024.
In 2025, 72.1% of Year 11 students who participated in a full assessment programme towards NCEA Level 1 (entered for 80+ credits) attained the qualification. This compares to 71.5% attainment in 2024.
Amongst 2025’s Year 12 students, 72.7% attained NCEA Level 2 (73.6% in 2024), while 70.4% of Year 13 students attained NCEA Level 3 and 49.9% received University Entrance (69.4% and 50.6% in 2024, respectively).
NCEA co-requisite attainment
Attainment of the Literacy and Numeracy | Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau co-requisite has increased in 2025.
In 2025, 73.4% of students met the co-requisite requirement by the end of Year 11, an increase from 69.6% in 2024. Increasing familiarity and experience with the strengthened requirements, which were fully implemented in 2024, is likely contributing to this improvement.
Attainment data is provisional
Attainment data is provisional, as students have an opportunity to request a review or reconsideration of their exam papers, additional results may be received from summer school programmes, and schools may submit corrected or late-reported results from internal assessment.
NZQA will release finalised attainment data in March – including breakdowns by region, subject, equity index group and ethnicity. Attainment rates typically increase by 1 to 1.5 percentage points once results are finalised.