NCEA is flawed

[snabbler]

If you don’t know, NCEA is the qualification system in New Zealand High Schools. Instead of getting F, D, C, B and A you get Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit and excellence.

So here is my story:

I just did a statistics test. You know mean, median, mode, inferences etc. In the test everything I did was up to an excellence level. However I forgot one thing, to put the units in front of my mean. This made me fail the test completely.

You have to admit that is a bit silly. The point of a statistics test is to test your ability to do statistics, not to test your ability to remember to put units in front of something. I always put units in front of things. Except through a sheer fluke that was the time I forgot to, the time that would make me fail. I put units on everything else but because I forgot to put units in front of one silly mean, it made an otherwise perfect test fail completely.

Think about the worst consequences that could have in real life. You’d have to be insanely stupid not to realise what the number referred to. Even if you didn’t know what it referred to you could just ask. You’d never have to ask again.

But no. Missing the word “penguin’s” has given me a big fat “not achieved” on my resume’.

These are the results I have so far for this year:

Static image: Excellence.

Creative writing: Excellence.

Science practical experiment: Excellence.

Speech: Excellence.

Drama Macbeth: Excellence.

Drama Duologue: Excellence.

In NCEA you either get “excellence” because it’s too easy or you get “not achieved” because you fail to fulfil one silly criteria.

[masked_marsoe]

NCEA is far better than School Cert was, in terms of the range and ability of teaching NCEA can provide. The marking systems are a bit wonky, and they do seem much too easy, especially at level 1.

But unless you're going to quit school soon, don't worry about it. Just make sure you get the right credits for UE. NCEA becomes useful at level 4 and up, but it doesn't have as much weight as a degree.

If you have a problem with a test, get it remarked. Even the internals get moderated.

[Junk angel]

That's the same like writhing an essay.
You might have written a work of art.
This would grant you a 1 in creativity.
but you might have totally messed up your spelling--thus granting you a 5 in spelling.
And if yu have failed completely in any part of the test, the complete fail not makes the test not achieved.

It's not only with the NCEA, but, it's the same with any other grading system.
Some are even harsher.