This information is for schools facilitating NZ Scholarship Drama examinations.
Read it in conjunction with the Scholarship Drama assessment specifications for information on the format of the assessment.
On this page
Personnel required for the examination
NZQA personnel
For each examination centre, we will provide:
- an Examination Supervisor to conduct the examination.
- an Examination Centre Manager (ECM) to oversee the examination process.
School personnel
Schools must provide the following personnel:
- a waiting-room Supervisor (a teacher at the school). If there is more than one candidate, you may need a second Supervisor to escort candidates to and from the bathroom as required.
- a Technician to set up and advise on using the camera and recording equipment. The technician:
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- can't be a current student, friend or relation of any Scholarship Drama candidate
- may operate the equipment on behalf of the NZQA Examination Supervisor as needed
- may check .mp4 files to ensure they are complete, audible and appropriately named.
- the Principal’s Nominee. They must be available to check and upload the files via the school portal after the examination.
Note that your school's drama teacher can't perform or be involved in any of these roles.
Before the day of the examination
Annotated scripts are submitted digitally
Candidates must submit their annotated scripts for Parts One and Two of the examination as a single PDF file to the Principal’s Nominee.
The information below must appear on the first page of the PDF file:
- candidate's national student number (NSN)
- Part One: Text-based performance
- title of play
- playwright
- character or role.
- Part Two: Self-devised performance
- title of piece.
Download a cover page template with the above information [DOCX, 55 KB]
To ensure anonymity during marking, the annotated script PDF file must not include the candidate’s name.
Submission date for annotated script PDF files
Candidates must submit their annotated script PDFs file to the Principal’s Nominee no later than the day before the examination.
Principals’ Nominees must ensure that annotated scripts are received on time and in the correct PDF format.
These must be securely stored and uploaded via the NZQA submissions portal, along with candidates’ performance video files, after the examination.
Preparing the performance space
The drama teacher can prepare the performance space before the examination, but can't be present in the performance space at any time during the examination.
Only 7 candidates can be examined in each performance space due to time constraints. For every additional 7 candidates, the school must prepare another performance space with the necessary equipment.
All candidates must complete their performance during the three-hour examination session.
Schools must prepare performance spaces according to the following:
- A performance area that's approximately 4 metres by 4 metres, clearly marked with tape on the floor.
- Stage dressings of:
- no more than 2 plain chairs or stools, and
- 1 plain table or equivalent (for example, boxes).
- Artificial lighting or natural light with flat, even coverage of the space. Coloured gels must not be used.
- Lighting should provide general cover that allows the camera to create a clear image of the performer. Avoid backlight from windows.
- A neutral background. No high contrast, patterned, ornamented, pink or red backgrounds.
- No enhanced sound or effects such as smoke.
- No costuming or props.
- Blank paper and pens which candidates may use to prepare for their impromptu performance.
Technical equipment required in the performance space
- A static camera in a frontal position able to capture the whole area without repositioning or refocusing.
- The camera must have an appropriate data storage device (such as an SD card) to reliably record each candidate's performances.
- A backup camera and recording system for each performance space.
- An electronic timer with a large number display.
Preparing the waiting-room
The school must provide a waiting room for candidates. It should be near the performance space, but out of sight and earshot.
All candidates will use the same waiting-room.
A copy of the attendance roll, waiting-room rules and Information for Candidates must be available to candidates in the waiting room.
Schools must ensure that candidates are familiar with and have a copy of the waiting-room rules:
Material to have ready for the examination
The NZQA Examination Supervisor and school staff must ensure that the following items are available in the examination room.
The NZQA Examination Supervisor will provide:
- the attendance roll
- a copy of the attendance roll for the waiting room so candidates know the order they will perform in
- an NZQA green pre-addressed courier bag for candidates' signed authenticity declarations.
The school must provide:
- printed authenticity declaration forms [DOCX, 57 KB]
- blank paper and pens for candidates, who may wish to use these to prepare for their impromptu performance. These do not need to be submitted to NZQA.
Additionally, the school should provide the following material for the waiting room:
Requirements for recording performances
Recording file format
The recordings of the performances for Parts 1, 2, and 3 must be submitted as a single video file in one of the following formats:
- AVI
- M4V
- MP4
- MOV
- WEBM.
File naming conventions
Files must be named using one of the following naming conventions:
Preferred naming convention (strongly recommended)
[NSN].[suffix] | Example: 3455678912.mp4
Other accepted naming conventions
[Surname]-[First name].[suffix] | Example: Franklin-Janice.mp4
[NSN]-[Surname]-[First name].[suffix] | Example: 345678912-Franklin-Janice.mp4
As part of the authenticity declaration, candidates will be asked to check that their performances have been recorded in full.
On the day of the examination
Examination performance procedures
For each candidate, the following steps will be taken:
- Candidates are checked against the attendance roll in the waiting room.
- The NZQA Examination Supervisor will invite a candidate into the examination room in the order of the attendance roll.
- The camera and recording will be started and not touched or stopped until all 3 performances are completed.
- The Examination Supervisor will announce the candidate’s national student number (NSN).
- The performances will be run by the Examination Supervisor as described in the information for candidates.
- After the 3 performances, the Examination Supervisor will ask the candidate to confirm that all 3 of their performances were recorded.
- The Examination Supervisor will ask the candidate to complete and sign the authenticity declaration.
- The Examination Supervisor will let the candidate know that they can leave the examination room and will note their leaving time in the attendance roll.
- The Examination Supervisor will place the completed authenticity declaration form in the green pre-addressed courier bag.
After the examination
Once all candidates have completed the examination, the following steps must be taken:
- The recordings of each candidate must be provided to the Principal’s Nominee. The files must be saved in the correct format and labelled appropriately.
- The NZQA Examination Supervisor will collect all authenticity declarations and place them in the green pre-addressed courier bag provided by NZQA and have them ready for collection.
- The ECM will provide the attendance roll to the Principal’s Nominee for the online attendance roll process.
- The Principal’s Nominee will need to ensure that:
- 2 files have been provided for each candidate: the video recording file and the annotated script file
- all video recording files are in the correct file format
- all annotated script files contain the cover page template and are in PDF format
- both the video recording and annotated script files are correctly named
- the ECM has provided the attendance roll for the online roll process.
- The Principal’s Nominee will upload the files for each candidate via the NZQA secure Provider login (accessed through the school portal) no later than the day after the examination. The Principal’s Nominee will also log the attendance via the online roll process.
Scholarship Drama cover page for annotated script [DOCX, 55 KB]
School portal login (external link)
Late submissions
Information on late submissions can be found on NZQA’s website. Please read this before emailing NZQA to advise of a late submission.
Summary of deliverables
Step 1
Before the day of the examination
Candidates provide annotated script PDFs (with cover page template) to the school Principal's Nominee. Annotated scripts can be typed or a scanned image of a handwritten script. They must be submitted as a PDF.
Step 2
On the day of the examination
Candidates complete the authenticity declaration after their performance and hand it to the NZQA Examination Supervisor.
Step 3
The day after the examination
Principal's Nominees enter attendance on the online roll and submit 2 files per candidate through the school portal to NZQA: the annotated scripts PDF and performance recording file.