NCEA and Scholarship exams begin

NCEA and Scholarship exams begin at 9.30am Tuesday with exams including level one maths and statistics and level three dance.

The Qualifications Authority (NZQA) said more than 157,000 students were enrolled to sit 127 NCEA and Scholarship exams over the next four weeks.

NZQA deputy chief executive Jann Marshall told RNZ the biggest exam would be next week's level two English exam.

"Roughly around 40,000 will be entering English and majority of them will be doing it digitally," she said.

Marshall said 84 of this year's exams would be offered online, up from 77 last year, and NZQA expected most students sitting those assessments would opt for the digital version.

"The majority tend to go with digital," she said.

"It often depends on the mode of teaching and learning in a school. Where schools are very much into digital assessment the students like to go into a digital assessment at the end of the year."

Marshall said NZQA surveyed students each year about the digital exams and generally about 90 percent said it was a great experience.

She said the final exams would be held on 4 December and results would be ready in the middle of January.

"We have a significant workforce, the majority are practising teachers, who mark our exams and they'll be ready in mid-January," she said.

She said for the first time, students in Tokelau were also sitting NCEA exams, alongside students in the Cook Islands and Niue.

Marshall said NZQA wished students well for their exams.

"They should take regular breaks where they are studying and they should get out for some exercise. The most important thing is to get your things organised, get a decent night's sleep and know where you're going for your exam so you can get there in plenty of time."