NCEA
New Zealand's National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) are national qualifications for senior secondary school students. Howick College continues to uphold strong achievement rates for NCEA Levels 1 - 3 and is consistently well above the New Zealand national average.
NCEA is the main secondary school qualification undertaken by students from Year 11 to 13 and is recognised internationally by top universities around the world. There are four qualifications that we offer
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Level 1 NCEA
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Level 2 NCEA
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Level 3 NCEA
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University Entrance (completed as part of NCEA Level 3)
How NCEA Works
Each subject is typically made up of 3 to 5 standards. These are called Achievement Standards or Unit Standards and each standard is worth a certain number of credits. Students are assessed against the standards using a mixture of internal (completed and marked at school) and external (marked externally) assessments.
Level 1
To be awarded NCEA Level 1 students need to gain 60 credits at Level 1 or above, PLUS the Numeracy and Literacy corequisites.
Level 2
To be awarded NCEA Level 2 students need to gain 60 credits at Level 2 or above, PLUS the Numeracy and Literacy corequisites. If students gained the Numeracy or Literacy corequisite in Level 1 they do not need to do it again.
Level 3
To be awarded NCEA Level 3 students need to gain 60 credits at Level 3 PLUS the Numeracy and Literacy corequisites. If students gained the Numeracy or Literacy corequisite in Level 1 they do not need to do it again.
University Entrance
To be awarded University Entrance (UE) students must achieve:
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NCEA Level 3
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14+ credits in 3 or more UE approved subjects
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UE Literacy requirement
Endorsements
Certificate Endorsements
Students can be awarded an NCEA Certificate endorsed with Merit or Excellence.
NCEA Certificate Merit Endorsement: Students must achieve 50 credits at Merit or Excellence level.
NCEA Certificate Excellence Endorsement: Students must achieve 50 credits at Excellence level.
Credits counting towards these endorsements may be gained over more than one year but must be at the same level or higher on the National Qualifications Framework, i.e. Level 2 credits will count towards endorsement of a Level 1 NCEA, but Level 1 credits will not count towards endorsement of a Level 2 NCEA.
Course (Subject) Endorsements
Course endorsement provides recognition for a student who has performed exceptionally well in an individual course. Students will gain an endorsement for a course if, in a single school year, they achieve 14 or more credits at Merit or Excellence, and at least 3 of these credits are from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards.
A course endorsement is not a qualification. A course endorsement can be gained independently of a qualification. For example, a student may achieve a Merit endorsement for their Level 2 Mathematics course regardless of whether they achieve NCEA Level 2.
More Information
More detailed information on how NCEA works is available in the NCEA Parent & Student Handbook.
More Information
More detailed information on how NCEA works is available in the NCEA Parent & Student Handbook.