Course endorsement provides recognition for students who perform exceptionally well in individual courses.
"Every spare second I had I studied," she said. "And in class I just put my head down in my books."
All the same, the NCEA Level 2 exams had been harder than she was used to and nerves brought her to the verge of tears before seeing her results.
Rahui, who will be her school's deputy head girl this year, plans to study engineering and law at university, but thinks she will ultimately pursue engineering as a career.
Nick Coughlan, One Tree Hill College principal, said she deserved all her success.
"Rahui is an outstanding young lady who has a very bright future ahead of her. She's a very balanced young lady."
Like other principals around the country, Mr Coughlan spent much of yesterday keeping tabs on how students had done, and said he was very pleased.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) will now begin mailing out records of achievement.
Marked NCEA examination papers will be returned to students from late January, and students can then apply for reviews and reconsiderations.
New Zealand Scholarship examination candidates will be able to view their results online in mid-February.
Introduced in 2002, New Zealand's National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) are national qualifications for senior secondary school students.
The NZQA says NCEA challenges students of all abilities in all learning areas, and shows credits and grades for separate skills and knowledge. It enables students to gain credits from both traditional school curriculum areas and alternative programmes.
"NCEA and other national certificates are recognised by employers and used as the benchmark for selection by universities and polytechnics. NCEA is also readily accepted overseas, including by universities."
NCEA results
• School students can now view their results for last year through the NZQA website.
• More than 163,000 students attempted NCEA qualifications.
• Official records of achievement are being posted out.
