More than 140,000 high school students in New Zealand have started their end-of-year exams. The first exams were held on Monday and will run for around 13 school days.
The largest NCEA exam will be Level 1 English on 17 November, with more than 45,000 students sitting it.
There are 458 exam centres – mostly schools – including seven in the Cook Islands and one in Niue.
This year most exams are being done on paper, although just under half of all students can sit an exam online in a supervised centre.
This year, dues to Covid-19, the government was again allowing schools to award extra credits called learning recognition credits.
Students can receive one learning recognition credit for every five credits that they achieve during the year, up to a maximum of eight credits at levels two and three and ten at level one.
It also lowered the threshold for University Entrance (UE). UE usually requires 14 credits in three different approved subjects, but this year students can get it with 14 credits in two subjects and 12 in a third.
