NCEA glossary

We’ve put together a glossary of the language used when talking about NCEA. We hope it will help you to understand your child’s assessment. 

Achievement Standard –

Unit Standard –

A unit standard is a national standard for an aspect of a subject which a student is assessed against. Unit standards have a certain number of credits attributed to them that are gained by the student once they have proven they can achieve at the national standard.

NCEA –

National Certificate of Educational Achievement

NZQA –

New Zealand Qualifications Authority

NQF –

National Qualifications Framework

Internal Assessment –

Internal assessment is the process by which the school awards grades to the student.

External Assessment –

External assessment is the process by which students are assessed outside of the school. This means exams are written, supervised and marked by qualified professionals contracted by the NZQA.

Record of Learning –

This is a certificate a student receives which outlines the achievement and unit standards he or she has achieved, how many credits they are worth and when they were achieved. It is on this document that it a student who achieves with merit or excellence will see recognition of this. An ‘M’ for merit or ‘E’ for excellence will appear next to the credit allocation for that particular standard.