The nervous energy of senior secondary school pupils in the build-up to NCEA exams evaporated yesterday morning with the first major exam of the 2014 season - level 1 science.
There was almost an audible sigh of relief as year 11 pupils at Kaikorai Valley College took their places and opened their exam papers. After many months of hard work, it was time to put pen to paper.
They were among about 6200 Otago secondary school pupils sitting NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams this year, and among 143,000 nationwide.
New Zealand Qualifications Authority deputy chief executive (assessment) Richard Thornton said there were more than a million entries into individual NCEA standards this year and 120 exam sessions.
Level 1 English was the year's largest exam session, with 47,200 pupils to sit the exam tomorrow morning, he said.
The smallest was New Zealand Scholarship Latin, with just 29 pupils due to sit the exam on December 2.
NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams finish on December 2, and a team of about 1750 will mark all papers by Christmas.
NCEA results are expected to be released online from mid-January, he said.
Pupils wishing to receive a paper copy of their results in the mail must make a request via the pupil login section of the NZQA website by the end of December.
