600 students sitting their NCEA exams

DEREK FLYNN/ The Marlborough Express

LAST OUT: NCEA level 2 biology candidates, from left, Simon Bush and Ethan Ward stayed until the end of their three-hour exam. About 43 boys sat yesterday's biology paper.

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Senior school students throughout Marlborough are heads down this week, studying for and sitting NCEA exams. The exams began this week and finish on Wednesday next week.

Marlborough Boys' College principal Bill Wick said there were about 600 year 11, 12 and 13 students sitting NCEA exams this year, with a workload ranging from one to 10 papers.

Some courses such as level one science could mean students sitting several papers, he said.

"The boys that do best academically tend to also be heavily involved in cultural and sporting activities."

"This year's dux (Jared Buckley) also won the Fulton Cup for all-round endeavour."

After a settling-in period, NCEA was now generally working well, said Mr Wick, who has taught at the college for more than 30 years.

Rather than their year's result in a subject being based on one exam, students now also gained credits from good work throughout the year. The standards were, however, still being fine-tuned, with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority checking that achievement and generally less challenging unit standards were correctly aligned.

- The Marlborough Express