When it comes to understanding the education system of New Zealand, most students understand the NCEA level system and that English gives you literacy credits and mathematics gives you numeracy credits. To pass Level 1 NCEA students need 10 numeracy and 10 literacy credits within gaining 80 credits overall. There are internal assessments that can be done as unit standards, which you can only Achieve or Not Achieve or achievement standards that enable students to gain credits at either Achieved, Merit or Excellence level.
The idea behind achievement standards is that it encourages students to be more academic in their subjects whether that be English, biology, physics, mathematics, art or any of the other subjects. Often there is a misunderstanding of what each level means, Achieved means a student's learning is at the level expected for their year level. NCEA qualifications enable students to be able to study at higher education providers across New Zealand as well as international education providers such as universities in the United Kingdom.
One thing to take into consideration is that NCEA Level 1 is the beginning of your pathway into specialising in certain subjects. Traditionally it was split into different domains such as STEM, Social Sciences, Arts and Physical Education. The development and increased academic rigour within certain subjects are starting to change the idea that each of these subjects acts as silos, apart from one another. As the world becomes more connected the ability to operate in international settings is becoming a need rather than a want.
No need to make any big permanent life decisions just yet, when you pick certain subjects it does not mean you have to exclusively pick other subjects in the same domain. While of course studying physics and mathematics is highly recommended because they are so interconnected, you can make different subjects work for you. Studying biology alongside English will enable you to improve your communications skill with the general public. You will know how to hold the attention of your audience while at the same time making sure the information you share holds up to academic scrutiny.
To help you gain a better understanding of the qualifications you are working towards Superprof has provided a range of guides to help you with NCEA Level 1 biology as a student in greater detail.
Demystifying the NCEA Level 1 Biology Syllabus
To understand the NCEA Level 1 biology syllabus you need to understand the extremely overlooked New Zealand Curriculum. It is here you will find out what it is you are supposed to be learning. It is the guiding objective within the educational system in New Zealand. It contains all the Achievement Objectives for every subject including mathematics, English, chemistry, science, and of course biology.
When we talk about NCEA it is often spoken as if these qualifications are the point of your studies, and while yes you do need to have them in a world that is focusing on academic strength, you are at school to learn. The New Zealand Curriculum is about New Zealanders being taught the skills they need to be active members of their community, to be able to understand, evaluate, produce, carry out, investigate, justify, critique, compare and contrast, describe and much more. These are just some of the skills you will learn at school as you make your way into the adult world.
What makes the New Zealand Curriculum unique is these skills are not attached to any certain content or topics, teachers can teach these skills through the topics they believe best develop and suit their classes. This is why when you compare topics you have studied with students from other classes or schools the topics may be different. NCEA is a part of the journey of you learning these skills. It is used as a checkpoint and once you have demonstrated you have the skill you can move on to the next one. Our guide on NCEA Level 1 biology explains this in more detail.
NCEA Level 1 Biology Study Guide
Like any skill, we need to continually refresh our memory if we want to be good at it. Academic knowledge and skills are no different to retaining physical skills such as throwing and shooting hoops. We need to practice and practice again. Our study guide on NCEA Level 1 Biology looks at the skills associated with internal assessments and how to prepare for them. The price we pay for knowledge is time. While in internal assessments we are given more time to complete them, the level of your detail needs to be higher.
Your skills are accessed a bit differently than in external assessments because you have the time and resources to prepare for them. The word study is often associated with the word revise but also can mean prepare like we would study an opponent to prepare to battle them. Students can prepare for internal assessments by understanding what they are expected to do and revising the information and skills they need. Within NCEA Level 1 biology there are generally two internal standards, a research paper and an investigation.
Both test your academic knowledge of biology and your ability to communicate with others in different formats. Research is about contrasting and comparing, evaluating, justifying and explaining. To be fair, investigations require the same skills but they are used in a completely different way. Investigations are about discovery, fact-checking and reliability of the data you have discovered compared to evaluating the data of someone else. Fact-checking is a skill everyone needs.
Revision Tips: How to Tackle NCEA Level 1 Biology Exam Questions
Understanding what the question is asking you to do can sometimes be straightforward and other times more complicated. Unfortunately, there is no academic course called understanding NCEA but it is information you pick up along the way. As you make your way up the staircase of Level 1 to Level 2 and 3 the questions become more layered.
Decoding questions is a skill you learn as you make your way through NCEA. It is about understanding the question in its entirety and being able to scan for keywords. Keywords help determine how to present the subject or topic. If the question asks for an evaluation then you need to identify and explain and then justify your response. Evidence needs to be integrated into your answer with phrases such as for example. Exam questions were previously designed to build up the difficulty step by step with achieved then merit then excellence questions. What is used now is the structure we often associate with English. The biology exam usually has three questions and all three enable students to give an achieved, merit or excellence response.
This means the questions are longer so you need to make sure you have covered all the components of the questions. Depending on the depth of your knowledge and your skills in explaining you will show the examiner you have an understanding (achieved), an in-depth understanding (merit) or a comprehensive understanding (excellence) of the topic. Our guide on NCEA Level 1 biology exam questions gives you tips on how to break down the questions even more.
NCEA Level 1 Biology Past Papers
A common saying is practice makes perfect, while perfect is a difficult goal to attain, practice definitely makes us better. A great resource to use is past exam papers. These are accessible for a majority of other subjects such as mathematics, English, physics and chemistry. It gets a little tricky with art subjects as there is no need for external exams as they have portfolio submissions.
When it comes to using past papers the trick is knowing where to find them. The NZQA site can be a little difficult to navigate but all you need is a little patience and to read our guide on biology past papers. It provides information on where to access them and what to look out for. There is, of course, a price to pay and that is not all past exam papers are good resource tools. So keep an eye on when the exam was so you can figure out if the exam paper is too old to be of use to you.
Extra support
As you make your way through the first year of NCEA, never be afraid to ask for help whether that be from your family, teachers or even a tutor. Tutors assess the needs of their students while also factoring in the requirements for the subject. With Superprof you can search for the right tutor for you from the comfort of your own home.
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