Nerves part of the territory as senior exams begin

Lani Alo, Year 12 Massey High student. Photo / Steven McNicholl

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Lani Alo is nervous. "Really, really nervous."

The Year 12 Massey High student will today join thousands of students around the country who are sitting the NCEA level 2 English exam.

It's not that he has not prepared for his first exam, it just happens to be one of his hardest subjects and he is worried about transferring everything he has learned this year on to paper.

"I have been putting more effort into English because it's essential for uni. For me getting ideas on to paper [is difficult] - in my head I've got it sussed but in communicating it on to papers is quite a challenge.

"I'm quite nervous, I'm just really really nervous. It's a lot of pressure but I should be fine."

Lani said he's been studying for about two-three hours a day so he feels as prepared as he can be. He spent yesterday doing his final bit of study in the school library - a place he finds helps him focus more than when he is at home.

Once English is out the way Lani thinks he'll be feeling slightly more relaxed but there are no plans yet on how he'll celebrate once his exams are all finished on November 29.

"I think I'll just relax and get things sorted because I've got the head boy badge for next year for school so I'm just trying to sort some stuff out for next year."

The teen is one of 144,000 students who are sitting NCEA and NZ Scholarship exams at the moment - 53,000 of whom are in the Auckland region.

The first NZ Scholarship exam was held last week while NCEA kicked off yesterday.

Year 13 Auckland Grammar student Mark Paul sat his level 3 Statistics and Modelling exam yesterday and said it went well, but not as well as he'd hoped. It was, however, his hardest subject so he too is glad to get it out of the way first.

This year's largest exam session is level 1 English which nearly 48,000 candidates will sit tomorrow morning. The smallest is NZ Scholarship Latin, which 26 candidates will sit on Thursday afternoon.

The NZQA's deputy chief executive (qualifications), Bali Haque, said organising the examinations was always a huge logistical exercise but "we're well prepared".

"We wish all candidates the best of luck in their exams."

Mr Haque said the exam papers will all be marked by a team of just over 2000 people by the end of the year. NCEA results should be available online in the first half of January while Scholarship results are due to be delivered by mid-February.

TESTING TIMES

* NCEA level 1 - 67,000 students
* NCEA level 2 - 56,000 students
* NCEA level 3 - 37,000 students
* 9670 candidates sitting 33 NZ Scholarship subject