Update

My memory is at such a point right now, where I don't know if I posted yesterday or not. Yesterday was a little hectic. I'd been told that NCEA released results yesterday, even though I knew by the beginning of Jan last year. But I completely forgot about it, got doing other things. Quite possibly updating this. Jesus, that's terrible.
Anyway, so I finally went and checked, Passed. Awesome. Next thing was Uni, did they want me? The thing about New Zealand, is this godawful system known as NCEA. It promotes mediocrity.
How, I hear you ask? Well, listen close, I'll explain.
The way it works is that we have Internally Assessed Exams, and Externally Assessed ones. Internals you sit during the year, and are generally little assignments. Let's use English as our exemplar.
Our Internals generally consist of:

• A Speech/Oral presentation. The criteria of which changes each year.
• A report or some piece of writing of a substancial length.
• An Article/short story etc.

And the External (Final) is generally comprised of:

• 3 essays. (Film, Novel, Poetry, Shakespeare depending on the year level)
• Unfamiliar texts (Close reading)

In any other sane country, those would all be worth a certain percent of your FINAL GRADE. And you'd be graded accordingly: A B C D E F
But ohnono not in New Zealand. It's all about "Credits" here. Credits are just another way of giving an assignment some worth. It's based on the length of time needed, and the size of the body of work. Generally, English ones range between 2 and 4 credits, and take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete. Where as a subject such as Photography, which has 2 internals that are 5-6 credits apiece are given a semester to complete both.
This bit I don't mind so much. But it's what comes next that really grinds my gears. The way they grade it is like this:

• E - Excellence
• M - Merit
• A - Achieved
• N - Not Achieved (Le fail)
• V - Void (Didn't attempt. Only happens usually on Finals)

Not only do they not have the accuracy that the Cambridge system does, case in point, if you are 1 mark shy of an E, you'll get an M. If some kid gets one mark over an A, you'll get an M. On paper you and the other kid have the same mark. Regardless of how much shinier yours was than his. Where as Cambridge, if you were 1 mark of an A, you'd get a B, if the other kid was 1 mark over a D, he'd get a C.
B vs. C.
Big fucking difference.
On top of that, whether or not you pass the year is based on how many credits you have in your slush fund. So, if that assignment is 4 credits? Guess what, the guy that passes gets 4 credits. The guy who works his ass off and gets an E, gets 4 credits.
Now unless you're like me, and a deliberate hard worker and over achiever, there is NO incentive to put more work into it than you have to, Because the reward is the same, unless you value the satisfaction of getting the highest mark possible. Which trust me. Most teenagers don't. And I shouldn't have to point out how ludicrous this is, every other country, and every other school, and more importantly, UNIVERSITIES judge you on your MARKS.
So, for the first 2 years of NCEA, mediocrity is drummed into us, until the last year. Where every ones got into the steady rhythm of "I just wanna pass" and they find out that University is actually going to be judging them on their MARKS. Well, one University openly released that that's what they were doing, even though I know that every other Uni does it, they just don't tell everyone. So, all of a sudden, no one wanted to go to this Uni, even though, in my opinion, it's the best in the country. So, of course, being the snooty over achiever that I am, I want to go. And I apply to only that one.

I am pleased to say, with their acceptance score being 120, I was accepted on
235.

Take that, you lazy bastards.

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