NCEA season brings back painful memories 

If you're at high school, the start of the silly season can be a bit stressful. In the fourth and final term of the school year students from Year 11 up (That's fifth from in the old system) have to sit a series of external NCEA exams.

Yesterday was Year 11 English, the biggest exam of all. Since the subject is compulsory for all students, anyone doing NCEA Level One has to sit the exam, and at 9.30 yesterday morning, no fewer than 47,425 students clicked their pens and started writing.

I did NCEA Level One back in 2002. It was 'The Year of The Guinea Pigs' and the new qualification's inaugural exams. Not being the finest academic, I loved being able to spread my eggs across internal and external assessments, but like most other fifth-formers, come November, I still found myself stressed out and studying late into the night as I prepared to be tested.

NCEA exams are a bit like international flights. You need a special ticket to get in, all cell phones have to be switched off and everything has to be kept in a clear plastic bag. I followed those rules to the letter. I turned up at my exam about 90 minutes early. I had about a dozen pens in my plastic bag, should any of them fail me at such an important time, and I'd re-read several chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird the night before.

The students sitting through English yesterday were no different. NCEA's initial bumps may have been smoothed over, but students are still as anxious about sitting the test. They still carry unnecessary amounts of pens, and they still study the same literature. As the clock ticked over to 12.30 yesterday we could sense the student's relief, as they walked out from their three hours in lockdown.

For many, it was their first real exam. For a few it will be the last. But with three essays, a formal written piece and an unfamiliar text in just three hours, fifth form English is as hard as ever.

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