Reporting results for candidates

Information for schools about reporting candidates' internal and external results

External assessment results

External assessment results, except for those provisionally marked by schools, are entered by NZQA and become live so that schools can see them in the middle of January.  

Provisional and final results for Level 1 and 2 Visual Arts are entered by schools through the school portal.

Schools report their internal assessment results to NZQA via the Data file submission or Internal Assessment (IA) results facility from mid-December.

Data submission to NZQA

Derived grade results

Schools need to provide valid, standard-specific evidence for all external entries (such as results from a formal practice assessment) in case a candidate applies for a derived grade. If there is no evidence available, students can't apply for derived grade application.

A school's Principal’s Nominee must be able to access this information as they may need it outside of term time. Schools should make sure these results are checked for accuracy. 

Derived grades

Internal assessment results

Schools send internal assessment results to NZQA monthly from May.

These are processed overnight and become live in the MyNZQA learner portal so students can view them. Only results for assessments that have been through the internal moderation process are to be reported to NZQA.

If a candidate has presented work or evidence for assessment, or had an adequate opportunity to achieve (consistent with the school's internal assessment procedures), the outcome of that assessment must be reported to NZQA as either:

  • Not Achieved (N)
  • Achieved (A)
  • Merit (M)
  • Excellence (E)

It is important that schools check the accuracy of this information. Some school systems require teachers to sign off results before each submission.

Reported results can also be viewed under Reports in the MyNZQA school portal. NZQA uses these reported results to award qualifications.

Candidates can view their reported results online. There's an appeal system in place if there have been any misreported assessment results.

It is important that the correct provider code is reported. All results require a provider code as it identifies, for the particular assessment, the organisation:

  • whose Consent to Assess is being used
  • that undertakes the assessment and awards the grade to the student
  • whose appeal procedures and other assessment procedures are being used
  • that attests that the student work is authentic
  • that is responsible for all aspects of internal moderation
  • that is responsible for ensuring samples of student achievement are adequately stored to meet external moderation requirements and to respond to student appeals
  • that has the responsibility for health and safety, providing adequate facilities, ensuring staff are suitably qualified, and making sure there are adequate teaching and learning resources and support services for students.

For all reported results, the school must ensure that it uses the correct provider code, that is the provider code of the assessor.

If an external provider code is used, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) must be in place.

Amending results already reported to NZQA

Each data file submission updates the previous submission, so changes that need to be made overwrite previously reported results.

After file submissions have closed in early December and been processed, we open a web-based login so schools can report late results and make any amendments. Entries must be made against individual candidates, so it's time-consuming to enter large volumes of data by this process.

This access closes in early March. After this time, all changes need to be made through a school's NZQA School Relationship Manager.

Withdrawals from internal standards

Withdrawals from internal standards can only be made if students have had inadequate opportunities for assessment.

Schools can't lodge withdrawals from internal standards after their December data file submission. This means that a positive result is expected by NZQA for any standards in which a candidate is still entered. Leaving an entry blank will signal that the school hasn't reported a result.

Releasing results to tertiary institutions

NZQA releases data for Year 13 leavers to tertiary institutions in New Zealand and Australia so they can process applications for entry into courses.

The release is allowed through the Tertiary Release Flag that is active in your school management system (SMS). If a student doesn't want to have their data released, they need to let NZQA know either by the school indicating on their SMS or contacting NZQA directly.

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