KEY POINTS:
The biggest exam on the calendar is over and more than 50,000 students were grilled on the techniques used in the movie poster of The World's Fastest Indian and the advice of Aunty Aroha on Maori Television's Ask Your Aunty show.
In all 50,287 students sat the level one English examination in the National Certificate of Education Achievement yesterday morning.
The exam got a pass mark from the head of Avondale College's English department, Barry Gough, who said it held no great surprises.
He said the formal writing section included topics such as healthy food, cellphones, celebrities and professional sport, which the students could relate to.
"They are the kinds of things students are involved in, and they should have plenty to write about them. Food is very much a big discussion with the tuck shop debates, and the professional sport question will resonate because students are certainly interested in how they can get to the big time by the ball sports."
The sections on literature and technical language in unfamiliar texts were similar to previous years, "so students should have been well prepared for those".
Kings College Year 11 student Fraser Gibson reckoned he'd done well in his English.
"But I'll wait for the results, in case I haven't."
A bit of extra-curricular reading prompted his formal writing essay, for which he chose "there is nothing wrong with spending money on material possessions".
"I've been reading a lot about Buddhism recently so I thought I'd write something like that, what other religions thought of it."
He said the hardest part was the unfamiliar texts paper - which asked students to analyse pieces including an excerpt from Ask Your Aunty, a Greenpeace poster on bottom-trawling and a student's speech on white-water rafting.
NZQA deputy chief executive Bali Haque said the exam season was running well, and there were just the usual problems to report.
Traffic jams meant one Auckland school had to seek permission to delay the start of its Level One English exam to give students time to arrive.
Another school was allowed to run into extra time after the exam room was evacuated because of a fire alarm.
He said the school had controlled the situation well, and students were given time at the end to make up for the time outside.
"Basically, it was pretty much a busy, normal day. These things happen daily. Every year the process is similar, so we hone the administration up in terms of the actual operation of exams, but we are pretty much repeating the processes we had last year."
Other exams yesterday included classical studies for level two and three students, statistics for level three and Te Reo Rangatira for all levels.
Sporting foes unite in the cause of study
Mairangi Bay twins Lauren and Ashley Smallfield are happy to fight it out with each other for spots in the netball and waterpolo teams, but study calls for a united front.
The Rangitoto College Year 12 pair were yesterday knuckling down to last-minute study for their level two English exam today, due to be sat by about 39,000 students.
Both play netball and waterpolo, and the keen sportswomen confessed to a competitive streak in sport, but not academically.
"It's good when we've got the same subjects, like maths, because we can study together," said Lauren. "In English, we're both doing The Hurricane [movie], so we can put our work together and get really good notes."
Neither was unduly worried, said Ashley, "because we've been through it before".
But English isn't Ashley's favourite subject. "I hate it. I can't stand it. It's just not my subject."
Lauren said there was "quite a bit of pressure to do well, because we have to get our literacy credits. But I'm not really worried."
The twins each have two more exams: level two maths, and then Lauren has social studies and Ashley has health. Their other subjects were internally assessed.
They have no idea who is better at English but, for the record, Lauren is better at netball and Ashley is better at waterpolo.
For today's exam, both have taken the "healthy body, healthy mind" creed to heart. Lauren planned to go to the gym beforehand, "just to clear my head". Ashley was planning to be up at 5am to go swimming.
* About 63,000 students will sit exams today: 38,664 will sit level two English and 14,941 will sit level three English. Other exams are French for all levels, and level one human biology.
