NCEA Information

New Zealand’s qualification for school learners is the National Certificate of Educational Achievement – NCEA.   NCEA is a qualification on New Zealand’s National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

• NCEA is achievement based.  Standards have been set in each area of learning.  When students achieve these standards, they earn credits towards their NCEA qualification.
• The NQF contains assessment standards: Credits from all achievement standards and unit standards count towards NCEA.
• Achievement standards (AS) allow students to show the quality of their achievement in a standard – students can just achieve the standard, or achieve it with Merit or with Excellence.
• Unit standards (US), enable students to either achieve the standard by meeting the criteria or not achieve the standard.  There are no merit or excellence grades.
• Some standards are assessed in school during the year (internally); other achievement standards are assessed externally, usually in end-of-year exams.
• All unit standards are internally assessed. (With the exception of the NCEA co-requisite).        

NCEA RESULTS

In January, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) issues students with a full profile of their achievement in each subject on their online platform. This interim results notice shows:

• The student’s credits and grades for each standard.
• Endorsements (course or certificate level).
• NZQA will also provide each student with a record of achievement which summarises all standards, credits and qualifications gained to date.

NCEA candidates can access personal performance information themselves via https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/login/ using their NZQA learner log in.

HOW DO STUDENTS COMPLETE A QUALIFICATION?

There are three NCEA qualifications.  The requirements for each level are shown below:

Level 1 - For students in Year 11 from 2025, NCEA level 1 is a 60-credit qualification. The literacy and numeracy co-requisite related also needing to also be achieved. The co-requisite standards comprising 20 credits must be achieved for any level of NCEA to be awarded but that do not count toward the 60-credit total for NCEA level 1. 

Level 2 - 80 credits, with at least 60 credits from Level 2 or above (including 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits from Level 1).*

Level 3 - 80 credits, with at least 60 credits from Level 3 or above (including 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits from Level 1).*

Once the 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credit requirement has been completed it will count towards subsequent levels.**

* NCEA changes to Level 2 and Level 3 will be rolled out in 2027 and 2028. There are no changes to NCEA level 2 or 3 in 2025.

** For students new to NCEA, including our Year 11 students, from 2025, numeracy and literacy achievement will be determined from achievement of 20 credits relating to reading, writing and numeracy. These standards comprise the NCEA literacy and numeracy co-requisite assessment and needing to be achieved for any NCEA level to be awarded. Students who have not yet achieved the co-requisite assessment in Year 10 in 2024, will be supported by their Level 1 NCEA English and Maths courses in Year 11 in 2025.This support including specific NCEA Level 1 standards tagged for literacy and numeracy. Students who do not achieve the co-requisite in 2024 will also have the opportunity to sit the co-requisite assessments in 2025.These changes do not affect any student who achieved literacy and numeracy in 2023 in the previous version of NCEA.

NCEA LEVEL 1-3 CERTIFICATE ENDORSEMENTS

Students can achieve their certificate with Merit or Excellence endorsement.  The requirements for the qualification must also be met.

Endorsement with Merit: 50 credits at Merit or Excellence at the same level or higher.

Endorsement with Excellence: 50 credits at Excellence at the same level or higher.

Credits counting towards endorsement may be gained over more than one year and more than one level but must be gained at the level of the certificate or above.  For example, Level 2 credits will count towards endorsement of a Level 1 NCEA, but Level 1 credits will not count towards endorsement of a Level 2 NCEA. 

NCEA LEVEL 1-3 COURSE ENDORSEMENT

To attain a course endorsement a student will need to achieve 14 or more credits at Merit and Excellence level with at least 3 credits from externally assessed standards and 3 credits from internally assessed standards in a single course in a single year.   This endorsement will be recorded on the students result notice.

EXCLUSIONS BETWEEN SUBJECTS

An NCEA standard is only counted once towards a students total number of credits for a particular NCEA level, with only the highest grade counting. This has resulted in some exclusions between subjects, where a student will only be able to study one of the subjects. These exclusions are stated in the curriculum guide.