KEY POINTS:
Some final year secondary school English students do not know what an adjective is, study Shakespeare through films rather than plays and study "a diet of violent and/or depressing films".
Meanwhile, biology students don't understand DNA, calculus students don't know how to use their calculators, and science students skip the chemistry questions.
The comments come in the annual reviews of NCEA work by the NZQA moderators who oversee the marking in each subject. The moderator writes a report on student performance, as well as the teaching and assessment for every standard.
Reviews of last year's NCEA work reveal major flaws - worrying gaps in student knowledge and problems with testing and marking.
The reviewers warn teachers that students are memorising model answers from a freely-available Ministry of Education website. Te reo, graphics, physics, history and calculus seem to be the most problematic subjects.
In 2006, main points included:
* Te reo teachers were reminded they had to mark and tally student work before handing out a grade: "This did not always occur and raised issues relating to the integrity of the assessor judgments."
* They were also reminded that students should not be relying on cue cards in their spoken-language tests
* Physics and chemistry teachers used assessment tasks straight from the Ministry of Education's website, which also provided model answers: "As students become more knowledgeable about the system, they are recognising that these resources provide excellent revision material..."
* In all levels of history some markers simply ignored the marking schedule and gave out grades that were not deserved.
* Many graphics teachers marked too generously and the review demanded "major changes".
* Graphics students at levels two and three were often drawing at a level one standard.
* Biology students had "a lack of basic knowledge" of DNA and genes; they were often allowed to work in groups when the test was meant to be individual.
* Students in calculus often did not know how to use their calculators and made a large number of basic errors.
* English students avoided Shakespeare and wrote best about films, some studied Shakespeare through films rather than plays, others regurgitated film guides in their answers.Some did not know what an adjective was.
* Markers were worried about "the diet of violent and/or depressing films that are regularly studied. There are many good films that are more uplifting...".
* Science teachers gave too much direction to students during internal assessment, making many marks invalid.
* Fifteen per cent of science students skipped the questions on chemistry.
* There was concern that in art history a lot of internal work was "closely drawn" from books or the internet.
* Geography students were relying too heavily on the internet.
* In virtually all subjects, many teachers gave students outdated tests for their internal work and others used marking schedules that only vaguely related to the tasks set.
At the flicks
Some of the films studied by secondary English students:
* Once Were Warriors
* Schindler's List
* The Shawshank Redemption
* The Pianist
* Crash
* The World's Fastest Indian
* Run Lola Run
* Blade Runner
* American Beauty
* Gattaca
* The Silence of the Lambs
