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Thread ID: 39946	2003-11-22 21:50:00	Off Topic: Exams...	MrBeef (342)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
193933	2003-11-26 00:27:00	I dunno about that, it's looking (admittedly remotely) sunny right now. Still plenty of cloud cover out west, but it's all blue skies and drifting clouds and semi-shinging sun closer to the CBD.	agent (30)
193934	2003-11-26 03:13:00	Well I'm In Taranaki - and it's been raining pretty hard the last 24hrs - with no sign of it stopping... oweel - wet weather plus holidays equal only one thing =COMPUTER :D	fergie (424)
193935	2003-11-26 04:10:00	To be quite honest with you, no teacher at our school love NCEA . Some like it, only because more people pass . Having done both NCEA and Cambridge IGCSE (first level of A levels, etc) this year, I have to amit that we are in a country where standards will fall like nothing seen before, if we do not stop this . Statistics over the last few years have shown a decrease in standards for us . To me, Cambridge is a challenging and demanding course . I honestly cannot go into the exam room and try pass with this . However, I did do it with NCEA . . . I did absolutely no study for any of the tests/exams, and still managed to answer all the excellence questions . Already, I have only got 'Excellence' for my internal assessed work . And no!, teachers at our school are definitely not soft . At our school, from senior management down to students, we simply think NCEA is not benefiting us much . Cambridge, chosen only by some of the better big schools, e . g Auckland Grammar, McLeans College, Westlake Boys' are what we need: something that will challenge our minds . Within our IGCSE course, we are taught things that will appear in Level 2 and 3 . Most of them infact! Some, such as advanced matrices, don't even appear at all, unless you do university Maths! I simply cannot express how bad NCEA is when you compare it to other qualifications . Even my other friends, who take the International Baccalaureate say NCEA is a load of rubbish . Not only does it increase the work load for teachers, but it lowers our standards, and all the rest . Having 'bad luck' on exam day, just isn't a good enough excuse for doing bad . However, I am happy that my school has given us the opportunity to do both NCEA and Cambridge (with Cambridge as principle) . We have learnt many things along the way . And thus, I have opted, without a headache, to dump NCEA . Again, these are some of our views, and certainly not for everyone . By the way, I am only 14 . And I am not a genius	~~~~~ s y ~~~~~ (2054)
193936	2003-11-26 04:14:00	Hiya, NCEA has been designed as a dumbing down system . It mashes as many possible into achievement/merit bracket as possible . Excellence can sometimes be extremely hard to get and many cases (which i always seem to face) is lost due to absolutely stupid reasons (I went from Excellence to merit because i didn't round a number properly so thats 100% to 75% . . . just for rounding) The way they work out percentages using 50% = achievement, 75% = merit, 100% is excellence is absolute rubbish, no ways about it . It in NO WAY shows the achievement of a student, theres often a chance that in a percentage based system a merit student will get higher marks that someone getting excellence . But considering there is NO other way of accessing a students achievement in a subject without these averages, it agains stupidifies the system . Unfortunatley the universities are using this system, as it is the only way to work it out, but is fully inaccurate . This system is rubbish, my marks have been downgraded too many times for stupid reasons . It is easier to pass, but hey LIFE'S NOT LIKE THAT, its good if your struggling to pass school (40% -> 60%), but any higher is just a waste of time . I am a fairly high achieving student, and have been almost at the point of dropping out and going straight to university . I'm sick and tired of a system in which is fatally flawed and then no one accepts that there are problems . - David	DangerousDave (697)
193937	2003-11-26 04:19:00	I forgot to say that internal assements are not a fair level of all of New Zealand. My school (Rangitoto College) apparently has standards higher that most schools, I know that some schools can resist internal assessments as many times as they want, due to the size of our school (3000 students) we only get about 1 - unless we're lucky. Difficulties of standard's will probably vary greatly, You can't tell me that someone being able to sit an assessment 3 times fair... - David	DangerousDave (697)
193938	2003-11-26 04:31:00	Just thought I'd add that I despise the Cambridge examinations and the pompous stuck-up ideals it stands for. However, I do think NCEA has dropped the standard, as said in a former post.	agent (30)
193939	2003-11-26 05:27:00	>I forgot to say that internal assements are not a fair level of all of New Zealand At my School (Hawera High) we have 3 yr 12 maths classes - wot I do. With one of the internals (probability) we done, our class got our papers back - I had Ex - and was the only one in the class - so I was naturally ahppy, but a few days later - I leanrt that 3 people who had Merits were aloowed to resit the same paper - and those 3 all got Ex's - this seemed ok - as I had benefited from this same procedure in other subjects - but when I heard that people in other math classes resit it up to 3 times - and people who had orignally got only Achives - and ended up with Excellences was when I got angry. I wasn't going to express my concerns to the teacher - as I would have seemed like a loser - complaining how people (inlcuiong my mates) got better marks - so I just kept it inside. And another thing - same subject - I once got a merit in a Test - this was ok, but I was guttered tht I missed out on one question that would have got me an excellence, however, I looked over at my neighbour's paper - they also had merit - but that had got the bare minium requirement for this standard - one extra question worng - and they would have had A. So if this was skool C - i would have had 80% + - them, 60-70% - but with NCEA we get the same mark - and I get pulled down to there level :(....	fergie (424)
193940	2003-11-26 05:52:00	Theoretically teachers are supposed to excercise discretion when it comes to things like that. For example if you had been achieving Merits/Excellences all year and your result from this test was Merit because you made one really really stupid mistake where you put 1+1=3 or something like that which stopped you from getting excellence, the teacher can either give you the opportunity to resit and get Excellence or boost you up based on previous results and give you the Excellence that way. What shouldn't happen is if people gaining Achieveds are allowed to resit and gain Excellence because they just decided to resit and most teachers work with this - if you fail you fail and you resit with Excellence, I agree it's not that fair considering you failed the first time and all that people see is you got Excellence on the Record of Learning, however if you achieve you can't resit unless you really have proven that it was a stupid mistake and that there's reason to be given the opportunity to be lifted. There is a problem with teachers discretion as what one teacher deems as the stupid mistake the other might say nope, no resit. Which is why for internals teachers are supposed to agree on the standards or have them moderated by another person.	cyberchuck (173)
193941	2003-11-26 07:40:00	Well mine are finished now.	-=JM=- (16)
193942	2003-11-26 08:10:00	my last science lesson ( WHOO HOOO) is an exam then ive finished häzz	hazza (2704)
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