What's the big deal about NCEA National Certificate of Educational Achievement? (level 1) it's the equivalent of the old "School C" back in the day except it's been revamped and can include end of year exams (external assessments) and in class assessments (termed internal assessments.)Usually students begin to study for it in their Year 11 but students can also pick up "credits" for their Level 1 in Year 10. Usually students are encouraged to take 5 subjects in total to make up enough credits i.e. a total of 80 credits at Year 11 including 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits.
Internal and External exams can be given 1 of 4 grades i.e. Yet to achieve (did not achieve); Achieved; Achieved with Merit; and achieved with excellence. If a student is able to get 50 or more excellence credits then they achieve an excellence over all endorsement.
There are more particulars about NCEA but it is best to talk about those details with your child's teacher for specific and up to date information. I'm particulary interested in this topic because our eldest child is studying towards her first NCEA qualification this year and I am keeping a watchful eye as an ex-high school English teacher.
One of the golden rules of achieving in any assessments/exams (as I have in being a professional student all these years) is the ability to keep up to date with all the assessments and being able to organize time and resources so that there is not a mad panic at the end of a day.
I've learnt over the years to set up my diary, calender whatever works for you at the beginning of the school year and then as I began to attend each class, I'd try and get information to get an oversight of the whole year and try and find out the dates of all upcoming assessments and would write/record them somewhere for me to be well aware of.
My notes were also kept in chronological order and I preferred to use (particularly in Uni) books with pages that you can tear out that had already been hole punched so that I could arrange the notes in topic order or anyway that made it easier for me to learn the information.
In those first years, it was important to not have so many things going on at the same time i.e. I gave club sports for a time (unless you're wanting to major in sports rec etc.) and I minimised my involvement in any extra-curricular activities including church commitments. I did, however, did attend church and Bible class (Sunday school) which took care of the spiritual side of me.
I also had a quiet desk space that I was able to write quietly and my parents were very careful about not involving us in activities that took up a lot of time so as parents I'm the filter of a lot of activities and will be checking this throughout the year with our one.
As well as school notes, it's also important that students get time to go to the library regularly to obtain more information about projects, assessments that they might have or to be able to extend on the class information. I found this particularly interesting growing up.
Another hint is that I have bought year course Revision outlines that are like a summary of what some of the topics that will be studied within subjects. In fact, when I was teaching English, I regularly referred to those notes in each of my year level teaching and would add to it with supplementary resources and that was the secret to some of my students gaining Excellent marks.
Getting enough sleep is another good tip and having exercise to regularly do assisted greatly during my Uni days. I've also encouraged students to have "study buddies" whereby students can study together or can share notes if one is away but this does need to be carefully monitored as it can be a distraction too.
So all the best to those out there who are in first year of NCEA or parent/caregiver as it can be a year of great successes if carefully managed...
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