Guides to NCEA –for students and whānau
The Guide to NCEA – our booklet for students and whānau explaining how NCEA works – is available to read or download from our website here.
The Guide to NCEA is available in the current range of languages: English, Te Reo Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori, Fijian and Kiribati. Please note that physical copies of booklets are no longer available.
The How NCEA Works animated video is also available to view here.
Sample Assessment Materials
Following the Ministry of Education’s announcement about the discontinuation of a submitted report as an external assessment method from 2025, and changes to the mode of assessment for standards in two subjects, sample assessment material for Level 1 standards with changes are available on the NZQA website:
These resources are designed to give teachers an indication of how the requirements of an achievement standard may be applied in an examination.
Vocabulary Lists for Languages
The NCEA Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Vocabulary Lists are valuable resources designed to help teachers and students understand the language expectations for each level, as outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum. The Vocabulary Lists support teachers to understand the language appropriate at different Curriculum Levels for language learners.
The sections of the Vocabulary Lists that contain the language candidates are expected to recognise for NCEA external assessments are: Target Language to English; English to Target Language; Categories; Grammar and Structures; and additionally, the Kanji List in Japanese.
Where to find the lists?
· Resources at the bottom of each Subject page at nzqa.govt.nz