Exam time — ‘do the mahi, get the treats’

Pupils at Otago Girls’ High School, in Dunedin, prepare to enter their NCEA level 1 geography exam yesterday afternoon.

The final NCEA exams for the year began on Monday, as the school year comes to a close.

High schools all around New Zealand had their halls filled with nervous pupils, many sitting exams for the first time.

Otago Girls’ High School principal Bridget Davidson said the school promoted a positive exam culture by encouraging its pupils to feel confident and positive about sitting exams.

She said they promoted the notion of, "do the mahi, get the treats".

According to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), about 4700 secondary school pupils in Otago will be sitting examinations until the end of the month.

More than 2800 of these were sitting at least one of their exams online, with another 320 registered for New Zealand Scholarship exams.

An NZQA spokesman said the largest exam, as it was each year, was NCEA level 1 English.

A total of 45,000 pupils around the country, including 1617 in Otago, were registered for the exam on Friday morning, he said.