ncea results out how did everyone do

[phoenix44]

Any other uni people following this, how did you go?

A, A, A, A- :facepalm:

[suphew]

I worked for NZQA and managed the data for NCEA a couple of years ago. It does take a while to get your head round, but it's actually a good system. Or at least would have been if it wasn't changed because people needed it to fit with the old school 5th form etc system.

NCEA wasn't designed to fit into 'years' but to allow you to move up levels at the rate that suited you, and then carry on to higher level's once school wasn't enough.

Also the Universities refused it come on board with the system. Students should have been able to reach level 4 and just seamlessly carry on into Universities. UE was tacked onto the end of NCEA because of this.

Under the old system you could study hard all year then have a bad day and fail. Or you could do what I did and learn nothing all year, cram for a couple of weeks and pass. It also judged you on a small sample (what they choose to cover in the exam) if you missed or didn't under stand those parts, fail. And then there was the lack of choices, you got to pick 5 (or 6 if you were smart) subjects, and was it.

[suphew]

We were just discussing Siran's niece who got a 35% average and yet still passed because of her class' over all average....makes no sense at all, can someone explain how that works?

I think you'll find it wasn't the class average but the group she was marked with, each marker will mark easier or harder, it's human nature, so they are adjusted at marker level to match the rest of the markers. Plus a certain % of the people sitting the exam need to pass, if they don't the exam was too hard, if too many pass, the exam was too easy so the group as a whole is adjusted.

[suphew]

Bit of advise to anyone who's mark was close to one of the cut offs, is to ask for a reassessment. It used to be policy that they would never put a mark down so you can't be worse off, but there's a good chance you might be better off. Plus if they do change your mark you will get your money back.

[DennisP]

Don't know if its been said yet, but:

Credits mean NOTHING.

You either fail, pass, or get an endorsement. That is all that counts.

To any SMART employer, 80 achieved credits means exactly the same as 937485 achieved credits.

Acheived, Merit, or excellence is all that matters.

[Sophia]

The main thing is to learn about stuff you are interested in and enjoy working on, because it sucks if you do something you don't enjoy and then have to get a job doing that afterwards. Life's too short 8)

[bronze-dragon]

The problem I had with NCEA was that the credits were not all achieved equally. Some were achieved easily ie: pointing out cities on a marked map and were awarded 4 credits, others took weeks of hard work in graphic design and were awarded 3 credits. Or If your doing Agriculture ITO like I did you get 6 credits for knowing how to drive a tractor.

[DennisP]

NCEA is bad.

Got about 8 credits for learning how to drive a freaking quad bike.

Which I already could.

International students (eg german/spanish/japanese) can opt to learn their own language at school for easy excellence credits.

[Joshlikesfish]

NCEA is really flawed.

I took mainly externals. I could have earned a max of 35 internal credits. I only got 27 as I failed maths. My school put my in the highest maths class even though I had no prerequisites for the course :facepalm: And they wouldn't let me out of it.

They also put me in the highest English class, without the prerequisites, and wouldn't let me out of it :facepalm:

Most of my friends took a more balanced option and had pasted NCEA before they even sat the exams.

NCEA needs fixing IMO

And like others said, some credits are ridiculous. I earned 6 credits in economics for copying and pasting news articles then summing them up. It took me 30 mins. I also earned 3 credits in accounting for about 6 hours work.

Does that seem right?

[Fruju]

The problem I had with NCEA was that the credits were not all achieved equally. Some were achieved easily ie: pointing out cities on a marked map and were awarded 4 credits, others took weeks of hard work in graphic design and were awarded 3 credits. Or If your doing Agriculture ITO like I did you get 6 credits for knowing how to drive a tractor.

very true, might as well take food tech instead of maths for easy cred.

Don't know if its been said yet, but:

Credits mean NOTHING.

You either fail, pass, or get an endorsement. That is all that counts.

To any SMART employer, 80 achieved credits means exactly the same as 937485 achieved credits.

Acheived, Merit, or excellence is all that matters.

Are you sure thats true? Don't credits get converted into UCAS points at Uni, with courses requiring a certain level of points for you to be accepted?

For cambridge we get a grade: A, B, C, D, E. Each one corresponds to a certain number of points (eg: A = 120), then after acheiving the grades you add up the scores to find out your overall Uni points. I earnt 200 points just in 6th form and aiming for 300 for last years grades. However, to me these kind of seem redundant since I had more than enough points to get into Auckland Uni and have already been accepted into my Ecology course :happy1:

[DennisP]

For cambridge we get a grade: A, B, C, D, E. Each one corresponds to a certain number of points (eg: A = 120), then after acheiving the grades you add up the scores to find out your overall Uni points. I earnt 200 points just in 6th form and aiming for 300 for last years grades. However, to me these kind of seem redundant since I had more than enough points to get into Auckland Uni and have already been accepted into my Ecology course :happy1:

First I've heard of this.

I know you need a few numeracy and literacy credits to get UE. But that's about it...

[bdspider]

Got about 8 credits for learning how to drive a freaking quad bike.

Hahaha, that's awesome. I suppose you could argue that at least students who are less academic are still gaining a qualification in something practical?

Anyway, so happy I was the last year of the old system.

And of course universities will never get on board with NCEA, they'd become laughing stocks internationally! A degree here would become unrecognised.

[Fruju]

Same principle with NCEA, each achievement counts towards some points, the more excellence credits you get the more points are available. Confusing as hell system, took me all 5 years to get a grip on it :dunno:

[Joshlikesfish]

Hahaha, that's awesome. I suppose you could argue that at least students who are less academic are still gaining a qualification in something practical?

Isn't it a bit unfair when somebody can work twice has hard as me by doing lots of academic subjects, but I can gain the same qualification doing bum subjects?

[DennisP]

Isn't it a bit unfair when somebody can work twice has hard as me by doing lots of academic subjects, but I can gain the same qualification doing bum subjects?

Exactly.

[burrowssj]

well the way I see it, you work hard you pass, you slack off you dont pass

the reason they have those "stupid" credits is so people who aren't "book smart" can still get a qualification.. book smarts aren't everything... YOU SHOULD get credits for being able to drive a tractor or fix a car or build a desk or weld a ornament or draw a nice painting... the system is not designed to only allow "book smart" people to move on its there to give everyone a fair chance at what they are best at, if we simply said oh your not got at maths an science so im failing you what point would there be in a schooling system? people are always going to be very different, i personally cant spell for stool an was in "cab English" how ever the same time I was extremely good at maths an was doing level 2 maths at 5th form... used to be able to fill out 100 mathematical problems in 2.38 mins which was fastest of my class, put me in a spelling competition id be out first round (thanks google chrome for spell checker)

it really boils down to WHAT you passed in ncea not the amount of credits, the credits are more like indicators of what you are good at...

all the job interviews ive been to they didn't care about the credits they were more interested in what I passed or did well in, an what i failed or didn't do well in

[Stella]

all the job interviews ive been to they didn't care about the credits they were more interested in what I passed or did well in, an what i failed or didn't do well in

Kinda, I guess it depends on what you are doing.

When it comes to school qualifications, each one is just a way of getting onto the next one. After your first job or two probably no one will care what you did at school.

And after your seventh job no one will care about the first.

My good friend and 'career mentor' tells me what what I major in and what marks I get will probably never matter in the real world. Every person competing with me for jobs in the future will also have a MSc in ecology/biology/environmentalstuff. The degree is just a tick on a form.

The thing that will get me the job is all the OTHER relevant stuff I do and how well I may fit in with them.

That said, it is usually pretty easy for interviewers to tell the slackers from the hard-workers without seeing their marks/credits.

[Fruju]

@ burrowssj

I think what we are trying to get at is that for someone working extra hard on maths like yourself they can achieve the same sort of achievement as someone who learns to drive a tractor which I can imagine is not particularly difficult. I am from the perspective as the employer that if 2 people showed up with exactly the same grades, but one in Physics and the other in food tech (disregard a focus on what working sector right now lol), I would instantly hire the person with a physics achievement as it would suggest they are more intelligent (not sniping at chefs so dont take it personally). I know it might be necessary in some cases but, I think some areas of NCEA fail to challenge those with little motivation, other courses like cambridge which I have perspective on really make a pass an achievement, whereas NCEA IMO and from observations is much easier to pass.

Although you say book smart is not everything, the manual labour skills that you mentioned couldn't they just be learned through work experience rather than a subject matter at school?

Wish I was good at math lol :roll:

[bdspider]

Exactly.

Well, yeah but its not the same is it?... I dunno what subject name that comes under, but Getting 100 credits in say 'farm studies' is different from getting 100 credits in 'maths'. So the employer/uni would look at the subjects done wouldn't it? If you're academic minded you'd be better off doing academic subjects rather than wasting your time doing the driving tractors unit.

I mean, I'm academically minded too so the old system suited me fine. But I suppose you gotta take into consideration the people who aren't, give them some sort credit if they are awesome at whatever practical skill/trade they want to do.

[Joshlikesfish]

At the end of the day, you get the same qualification. Not one that says you can drive a tractor or one that says your awesome at math.

[bdspider]

At the end of the day, you get the same qualification. Not one that says you can drive a tractor or one that says your awesome at math.

That is kinda crappy, and I would be annoyed if I'd had to do NCEA and I don't like the NCEA system... But I can assure you, as soon as you start your next step in education, Uni or Tech or whatever, your high school NCEA credits become irrelevant. Once you have your next qualification no employer gives a toss what you got in high school. So stop worrying about what other people get, let them have their NCEA and look forward to your bachelors degree.

[Stella]

let them have their NCEA and look forward to your bachelors degree.

Yeah baby! :happy1: Great way of thinking about it

[BikBok]

the NCEA is just weird.. it has it's good points but i mainly see the flaws!

My son is not academically minded but he was formally assessed as having a high IQ but with an unusual set of learning difficulties.

He worked really hard (at least the 2nd half of Y11 he did) and came out with a decent amount of credits incl some Merits and Excellence. (graphics, technology, maths, science, Info man, health.) More than some of his friends in fact .. They passed BUT he didn't because he didn't get enough English credits. now don't laugh...English has been the one subject that always kicks him in the pants- always has been. Mainly because of having to write it all down! English does not come easy to all and it's really really different to when I was at school and we had School C eng to pass) I know without a doubt that he absolutely knew his materials and subject matter for all the ext eng standards, he gave me some pretty deep reflective answers when I questioned him.. I studied with him and he did Pass ALL his Mocks, some with merit. .. but that's because his teacher /HOD could understand his way of writing. (to do with his learning difficulty) but in the externals. the pressure was too much and the SLD got in the way and I doubt the examiner would have been able to read his writing/grammar/syntax. If it had been typewritten or done Orally he would have been fine!

So there we have a boy with above avg-high IQ who didn't pass NCEA because of the Eng .. and yet ESOl students can take an alternative course and pass... He got more credits than some of his friends, they passed he didn't -- it has really gutted him.

To make matters worse.. NCEA Eng requirements are changing ... 2011 is the transition year but his school is going for the new system with the new/revised standards and the course content is different. he will not be able to count the credits he did achieve in ENG and will have to start all over.. including the stupid wide reading log which has now been biffed out and exchanged for a new standard.

that's my moan for the day ..the ENG standards seem to have very little to do with being able to communicate in English and should not be compulsory IMO - especially if ESOl students don't' even have to do mainstream English - hardly seems fair.

This year he will probably have to repeat Y11 ENG, because he can't even fill in the gaps like you can in some subjects as the new standards don't match up with the old ones he did. (He only passed 2 internals, narrowly missing out on the others)

[Stella]

That is BIZARRE, Bikbok! Insanely unfair. :an!gry

A friend of mine has real dyslexia. I say 'real' because most people think they have dyslexia if they make the odd spelling mistake. Trying to read anything this guy wrote, or to hear him attempt reading out loud is an abrupt education in what dyslexia really is.

The terrible thing is because of this at school he was put in the class for the mentally challenged.... poor kid. Finally his dyslexia was picked up by someone marking (I think) his school cert science exam, who realised he was totally onto it but couldn't communicate on paper to save himself.

I hate to think what would have happened to him psychologically if that hadn't happened.

He now has a MSc in Chemistry.

Good on you for having your son tested to figure out his various things and supporting him so much.

[Caryl]

Why have these people not applied to get a special needs reader/writer for exams? This is organised through the school.