NCEA- what's your view?

[Kanga]

My daughter starts high school next year and the obvious choice is the local high, which appears pretty decent and is where her friends are going. However, they only offer NCEA and I do wake at night wondering (worrying) whether it would be better if she had the opportunity to sit what are called here "Cambridge exams" given the controversy and relative newness of NCEAs.

What do you all think? I could do with some on the ground opinions on this one!

[Aquarian]

I'd be interested in the answer to this too. My fifteen yr old Son will need to join a high school and sit his NZ exams later on.
Our choice may be limited in the schools he can attend on the Coromandel but if I have to pay international fees then I'll consider boarding school as an option.

[Kanga]

Bump!

[Sam B]

I think Tia Maria did a thread on this relatively recently. I'm no good at searches, but it was comprehensively answered I think.

[Tia Maria]

I've only got 2nd hand views from when I was asking some friends with older children.

One said it's kind of like the difference between O levels and GCSE's, (hope your of an age to appreciate this comparison). They said NCEAs favoured coursework and those who didn't perform so well in exams, allowing every student a greater opportunity at success.

However, the Cambridge students had to put in more hours but ended up with a greater amount of knowledge. There was also more emphasis on being able to perform on the day of the exam.

If your child was going to take a Science based course, where a lot of core knowledge was required, then taking Cambridge would put you ahead of the pack when they got to University. However, for arts based courses, where the topics studied and way of studying was different at University, it wasn't so valuable. Therefore, doing a NCEA may give your child a greater chance of getting higher grades for the course they needed.

So maybe looking at the type of child you have, (do they do well in exams or better with coursework? Will they be turned off study by a harder course? Are they already ahead?), and the type of course they may want to take later on, (one which requires a core set of facts and follows on very directly from High School or one that covers different topics such as a different area of History?), may help with deciding which way to go.

Amongst parents there was the feeling that those who took Cambridge were more academic, but in theory both NCEAs and Cambridge are treated equally by University admissions.

Just to add to the confusion there is also the NCEA, level 4 exam, which was considered more advanced than Cambridge.

As I said, all second hand but hopefully of some help.

Cheers

Tia

[Kanga]

Amongst parents there was the feeling that those who took Cambridge were more academic, but in theory both NCEAs and Cambridge are treated equally by University admissions.

Just to add to the confusion there is also the NCEA, level 4 exam, which was considered more advanced than Cambridge.

As I said, all second hand but hopefully of some help.

Cheers

Tia

Yes, thanks Tia. I probably should have just added to your thread- oops, sorry! I did read it at the time (and the mined links) but I'm still churning over NCEAs.

I do have some concerns about NCEAs meeting the needs of higher achievers (although I suppose they're not actually my concerns, they're well reported by many). My daughter is averagely over-average (iyswim! She's a high achiever but not a genius) and sometimes I think I haven't been pushy enough about her education so far, so perhaps I'm compensating now, but there are some real criticisms of NCEAs for high achieving academically focussed kids ... particularly those that enjoy and respond to challenge.

Oh, hopefully it's just a fret and it'll all be fine and I'll be writing on here in 5 years time about how wonderful NCEAs are, but I found her comparing marine biology courses in Australia the other day and it reignited my worries.

[Kanga]

Cambridge High do a very comprehensive breakdown of how NCEA works

http://www.camhigh.school.nz/file/20...guide-2010.pdf

[Sam B]

Clear as mud.

[Kanga]

What, my posts or the link?!

[Tia Maria]

I do have some concerns about NCEAs meeting the needs of higher achievers (although I suppose they're not actually my concerns, they're well reported by many). My daughter is averagely over-average (iyswim! She's a high achiever but not a genius) and sometimes I think I haven't been pushy enough about her education so far, so perhaps I'm compensating now, but there are some real criticisms of NCEAs for high achieving academically focussed kids ... particularly those that enjoy and respond to challenge.

.

Does your school offer the option to do NCEA 4s? I've been told that high achivers can whizz their way through the earlier levels to do these.

You could write a direct enquiry to one of the department heads of the courses she is interested in to see if they favour either exam, they'll be able to let you know whether they've noticed a big difference between the two and as it's an Aussie Uni they shouldn't worry too much about the politics of it all.

They'll probably also be able to give you other general ideas about what she can do in the next couple of years to prepare, I imagine in marine biology there are probably lots of 'experiences' that would be looked on favourably by admissions too.

Cheers

Tia