AS 92051 Annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars consist of student evidence, with commentary, to explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

Download all exemplars and commentary [PDF, 238 KB]

Level 1 Social Studies assessment resources (external link) - NCEA.education

For Achieved, the student needs to describe a social action undertaken to support or challenge a system. 

This involves describing the social action, its aim in relation to a selected social issue, and how it supported or challenged a system. Relevant evidence must be included in the description.

These exemplars are based on student evidence from 2024 external assessment and will be updated as internally assessed evidence becomes available from 2025 moderation.

The student has chosen the social issue of endometriosis being under-supported and underfunded. They have identified a system to address this issue by supporting the charity Endometriosis New Zealand and challenging the healthcare system. The relationship between the system(s), social issue, and the social action has been described. Relevant evidence has been used, such as statistics and quotes from the charity's website. At times, further use of evidence would have been beneficial.

The student describes their social action in terms of how it supports and/or challenges the system. The selected social action includes several activities: emailing the charity, raising awareness through Instagram, organising a bake sale, and contacting Health New Zealand. These activities reflect an appropriate understanding at level 6 of the curriculum of how to support and/or challenge a system. The student has included evidence of their participation in the social action through photographs and screenshots.

The student connects each action to how it supports and/or challenges the system. For example, they have identified that to support Endometriosis New Zealand they need to raise money. Towards the end of the exemplar, they briefly connect the amount of money raised to its likely impact on the system. Additionally, the student connects their email to Health New Zealand with an effort to put pressure on the system, further demonstrating their understanding of how social action can be effective.

To achieve Merit, the student should explain the impact of their social action. This involves unpacking how and/or why their selected action will have the desired effect on the system. For example, the student could demonstrate a greater understanding of how far $175.00 will go in relation to Endometriosis New Zealand’s work or explain why public contact with a government agency can be beneficial in making changes in the New Zealand democratic system. Further use of specific evidence demonstrating the impact on the system would also be required. 

For Merit, the student needs to explain a social action undertaken to support or challenge a system

This involves explaining the impacts of the social action in supporting or challenging the system and using evidence to support the explanation.

These exemplars are based on student evidence from 2024 external assessment and will be updated as internally assessed evidence becomes available from 2025 moderation.

The student has identified the social issue being the subject choices offered at an all-girls school, and has selected an appropriate system to challenge (i.e. their school system). The relationship between the social issue and the system correlates with the selected actions. As appropriate at curriculum level 6, the student has demonstrated an understanding of effective social action by undertaking appropriate prior research to ensure the social action would have the potential to be effective. 

The student has moved beyond describing how their social action challenges the system (as required for Achieved), to explaining the impacts by how and/or why what they have done is going to impact the system. Instances of this include articulating why the collection of data is beneficial to their overall aims and considering why they feel the Board of Trustees are the most appropriate group to directly contact if they wish to bring about change. At times, further use of evidence to have supported this aspect of the explanation would have been beneficial. 

While there is an attempt to evaluate the suitability of the action, the discussion in this section is mainly around the social issue itself, and the aims of the social action. For Excellence, the student could have more specifically considered the actions that they took in relation to their effectiveness on the system. This may have involved considering if the Board of Trustees were the best group in the school to lobby, the appropriateness of students making direct requests for curriculum change, and/or whether or not further actions may have complimented their goals and why this would be. 

For Excellence, the student needs to evaluate a social action undertaken to support or challenge a system

This involves evaluating the suitability of the social action in supporting or challenging the system and using evidence to develop the explanation. 

These exemplars are based on student evidence from 2024 external assessment and will be updated as internally assessed evidence becomes available from 2025 moderation.

This student has clearly identified the social issue of child poverty and described the relevant system they wish to support to help address the issue – KidsCan. The connection between the social issue and supporting the selected system has been well articulated and explained using evidence. 

The student has demonstrated a strong understanding of how their social action will have an impact on the system. This includes explaining the importance of raising awareness within their fundraising efforts and what the best ways are to go about doing this. They continue to develop their explanation of impacts by specifically considering how the amount they have raised will impact the charity, using evidence from KidsCan themselves to further develop the explanation. 

The Excellence is secured in the suitability section. When evaluating suitability, the student has focused the discussion specifically on the action in relation to the issue and the system. Several different aspects have been considered as part of the evaluation, supported by evidence. This includes assessing the appropriateness of conducting a fundraiser, the suitability of selecting KidsCan as a charity, the feasibility of a bake sale given the students’ context, and finally, the scale of the change they were able to achieve. Next steps are also discussed and broadly justified.