Key dates and information
22 September
Term 3 ends
9 October
Special Assessment Conditions (SAC) – Applications for Learning Disorders close for 2023. First time applications for entitlement open for 2024
Term 4 begins
18 October
Admission Slips for candidates sent to schools
19 October
MCAT Level 1, 91027 – Last day for entry of ALL provisional results and submissions sent for verificatio
24 October
Confirm with NZQA three-way exam clash arrangements
25 October
Submission of candidate work and attendance rolls for the following external standards (collected from schools):
- Dance – NZ Scholarship
- Design and Visual Communications (DVC) – Levels 1, 2, 3 and NZ Scholarship
- Education for Sustainability – Level 3
- Music –NZ Scholarship
- Submissions due for Kete manarua for Te Ao Haka
-
Health and Physical Education – NZ Scholarship
-
Technology – Levels 1, 2, 3 and NZ Scholarship
-
Visual Arts Level 1 – Verification portfolios and ALL provisional results must be entered
30 October - 3 November
Session 2
- 32403 Literacy
- 32405 Writing
- 32406 Numeracy
- 32412 Pāngarau (Assessment Master OR Digital Submission)
30 October
Final date for school payment of NCEA & NZ scholarship fees for international fee-paying candidates
6-10 November
32414 Te Reo Matatini (Assessment Master OR Digital Submission)
1 November
Visual Arts Level 2 – Verification portfolios collected from schools. Complete entry of ALL provisional results
New circulars
Digital marking of NZ Scholarship paper-based examination answers in 2023
Dates for external assessment in 2024
School contact details
Please keep your school’s contact details up to date in MyNZQA|Provider Login as we use these details to contact the appropriate people.
NZQA Learner Logins
Please encourage your students to create a NZQA Learner Login. Students with active accounts can access:
- digital exams
- entries and results
- completed exam scripts
- reviews and reconsideration
- their NZ Record of Achievement
- un-redacted previous digital exam papers
- information to order a printed copy of their qualifications.
It is important that students check the email address they have used for their Learner login. This email address will be used if NZQA needs to contact them or if they need to reset their password.
School-leavers should ensure their email address remains accessible after they have left school. They can change their login details by log
ging into their NZQA Learner Login and selecting their ‘Account details’.
Checking that students have an active learner account
There are two ways via the Provider Login that schools/kura can check who has created a Learner Login:
- Go to the Key Indicators page and select ‘Learner Login’ in the Learners section OR
- Go into the Reports menu and generate a ‘Candidates’ Last Login’ report.
An account has been created if you can see “Last Login Date” next to their name.
On this page
External assessment
Digital Practice Examinations
Key dates:
- 22 September: Digital Exam Platform closes for students to sit exams
- 18 October: Platform closes for teachers to mark student work and extract comments, grades
- 27 October: Student access to their marked script closes
Working with your Exam Centre Manager (ECM)
Make sure you work with your ECM on a regular basis leading up to the exam period. Things to cover include:
- Confirmation of available rooms
- Late entries
- Students wishing to sit examinations digitally
- Changes to SAC applications
- Confirmed number of students sitting NZ Scholarship exams
- Any recorded files that need to be digitally submitted to NZQA
- Securing backups of candidate word processed work and NZ Scholarship recordings (Drama/Languages).
Find out more about working with the Exam Centre Manager
Requests for students to change exam centre
If you have a request for a student to sit at another exam centre, follow the process on the 'Request to change examination centre' page.
Request to change examination centre
Derived Grades
Check that mark books are setup to ensure your data file submissions to NZQA include derived grade results. Derived grades may be used for unexpected events. You can check on your school’s progress towards reporting derived grades through the Key Indicators and gain a detailed view using the Derived Grades for Unexpected Events Report through Reports.
Evidence collected for a derived grade or derived grade at scale (previously referred to as Unexpected Event Grades) must:
- meet the requirements of the standard
- be authentic
- mirror the format and conditions of the standard
- be pre-existing - collected before the start of the external assessment.
Information on gathering school-based evidence for external assessments is available on the 'Quality assurance processes' page.
Senior Management is responsible for ensuring that all derived grades are based on valid, authentic evidence and have been subject to quality assurance processes. Evidence of the assessment task, schedule and verification or justification processes is required to be held and may be requested for review by NZQA. Your Derived Grade Profile report and Derived Grade Outlier Comparison Reports (if you have any) should help inform your management of the quality assurance process. Further information is available via the 'Derived Grades Mythbuster' page and the 'Reaffirming Derived Grade Quality Assurance Processes - A2022/11' page.
Reaffirming Derived Grade Quality Assurance Processes - A2022/11
Where schools do not already have templates to record their verification or justification processes, NZQA has provided Derived Grade Quality Assurance Check Templates on the 'Resources for Principal's Nominees' page.
Resources for Principal's Nominees
Late external entries process and exam paper PDF downloads
Please refer to the information sent out last week from your School Relationship Manager
International students – NZQA Secondary Education Fees
As outlined in EmaiLink 3, schools with international students who have internal assessment results and entries in external assessment will be sent an invoice by the end of September.
Co-Requisite (Literacy/Numeracy/Te Reo Matatini/Pāngarau)
Literacy/Numeracy Assessment Reports
Interim Assessment Reports for the June 2023 Reading, Writing, and Numeracy assessments were published on 14 September. Interim Assessment Reports outline how the assessment cohort performed against each outcome and make recommendations for where to focus teaching and learning based on this. A more detailed Assessment Report will be released following the October Assessments. Alongside the Assessment Reports, the June 2023 Assessment Questions (see links above) and the June 2023 National Performance Statistics have also been released.
Interim assessment report for June 2023 - Reading - ncea.education.govt.nz (external link)
Interim assessment report for June 2023 - Writing - ncea.education.govt.nz (external link)
Interim assessment report for June 2023 - Numeracy - ncea.education.govt.nz (external link)
Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau Assessment Reports
Interim Assessment Reports for the June 2023 Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau Tūmahi Aromatawai Pātahi (TAPA-CAA) assessments were published on 14 September. You can also access these on the 'Tūmahi Aromatawai Pātahi (TAPA) - Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau' page. Interim Assessment Reports outline how the assessment cohort performed against each outcome and make recommendations for where to focus teaching and learning based on this. A more detailed Assessment Report will be released following the second TAPA and Kete Manarua (Digital Submission) assessments scheduled for October-November.
Te Reo Matatini (external link) - ncea.education.govt.nz
Pāngarau (external link) - ncea.education.govt.nz
Tūmahi Aromatawai Pātahi (TAPA) - Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau
Alongside the Assessment Reports, the June 2023 TAPA Assessment Questions and the June 2023 National Performance Statistics have also been released.
June 2023 TAPA Assessment Questions
June 2023 National Performance Statistics assessment (external link) - education.govt.nz
This information will be updated following the second TAPA and Kete Manarua (Digital Submission) assessments, which are scheduled for October-November.
RAS implementation
Information regarding Kete Manarua (Digital Submissions)
Information regarding Kete Manarua submissions for Te Ao Haka and Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau, including instructions on how to upload ākonga responses for Kete Manarua, will be provided to all kura in mid-September.
Kura will be able to submit all Kete Manarua for marking from 1 October, and on or before the deadline date set for 25 October 2023.
If you have ākonga files ready to submit, please continue to store these in your own Google Drive (or file system) until submissions open.
Submitting Entries for Kete Manarua - Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau (TRMP) - (Transitional)
Entries for Kete Manarua for Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau are due no later than 29 September 2023.
- If you are submitting entries via KAMAR, when selecting an assessment opportunity, please select “Term 4”.
- If you are submitting entries via another SMS, please select “Assessment Opportunity 2”.
- If you use Web Entries, please submit entries as normal.
Submitting entries for Kete Manarua - Te Ao Haka (TAH) – (Implementation)
Entries for Kete Manarua for Te Ao Haka are due no later than 29 September 2023.
- If you are submitting entries via KAMAR, when selecting an assessment opportunity, please select “Term 4”.
- If you are submitting entries via another SMS, please select “Assessment Opportunity 3”
- If you use Web Entries, please submit entries as normal.
For the following standards, only Kete Manarua is available. Please submit student entries as normal. You do not need to select an assessment opportunity.
- 91986: Perform two Te Ao Haka disciplines.
- 93700: Te Ao Haka Te Hiranga (NZ Scholarship)
NCEA requirements explained
A new page on NZQA’s website outlines what will change (and what will stay the same) with NCEA in 2024 and 2025. The page is intended to help ākonga and whānau, and is focused on the requirements to attain NCEA over the next two years.
Schools and kura are encouraged to provide this information to your communities and you can edit it to reflect your local context.
NCEA Changes for 2024 and 2025
Access to PDFs of 2022 pilot external examinations
PDF copies of the 2022 pilot external examinations are available through the Assessment Materials link in the Provider Login. As materials are updated to respond to learnings from the pilots the external examinations from 2022 should only be used as guidance of what external assessment may be like. All materials should be read in conjunction with the information about Planning Level 1 Teaching and Learning and the material in the Learning and Teaching tabs for each subject page on the Ministry of Education’s NCEA.Education website.
Planning Level 1 Teaching and Learning (external link) - ncea.education.govt.nz
NCEA Education (external link) - ncea.education.govt.nz