Digital marking of NZ Scholarship paper-based examination answers in 2023 - A2023/11

To:

Principal

Principal’s Nominee

All Teachers

Paper-based examinations for six NZ Scholarship performance standards will be scanned then marked digitally this year for the following subjects:

  • Art History
  • Chemistry
  • Earth and Space Science
  • Economics
  • Geography
  • Media Studies (also offered digitally).

This change affects every student who sits an NZ Scholarship paper-based examination in any of these six subjects.

Digital marking is conducted by a regular marker, but on screen instead of by hand. All other NZ Scholarship paper-based examination answers will continue to be marked by hand and scanned post-marking.

The improvements and benefits gained from the change in digitally marking paper-based NCEA since 2021 has led us to begin introducing digital marking for NZ Scholarship subjects for 2023. This change will allow us to continue along our digital assessment journey.

Student access to marked answers

Students will access all their assessed examination answers through their NZQA student login. It is important they create an NZQA Student Login account on the Login Options page if they don’t already have one.

Students can view their answers online until end of June each year. This includes any scanned blank paper-based examinations, but not blank digital ones.

Return of physically submitted portfolios

Design and Visual Communication portfolios will continue to be marked by hand and returned by courier to schools.

Level 3 and NZ Scholarship Visual Arts portfolios will continue to be marked by hand and returned by courier to students.

Why are we doing this?

Benefits for students include:

  • being able to view their paper-based answers sooner, and all in one place, together with any digital answers they might have produced
  • having a copy of their answers they can share with their teacher
  • faster and more efficient review and reconsiderations processing, with NZQA holding a digital copy of their answer
  • having digital access to their answers anytime and anywhere after marking.

Scanning responses for students and marking digitally reduces:

  • marking administration time
  • some of the risks and environmental impact associated with the distribution and marking of paper responses
  • our reliance on the geographical proximity of markers.

Enquiries

Please refer any enquiries relating to this circular to your School Relationship Manager.

School Relationship Manager
School Quality Assurance and Liaison
Telephone: 04 463 3000
Email: firstname.lastname@nzqa.govt.nz

Circulars are available from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website
(Newsletters and circulars)