"As well as serving as excellent preparation for bursary, I found the NZEST exams to be a welcome test of the 'problem solving' type of skills that bursary seldom requires. I particularly enjoyed the calculus paper, which required students to prove university-level results such as De Vite's expansion for pi. NZEST gave me a chance to push my knowledge of subjects like chemistry and economics past the level required by Bursary, and build the ideas I had been taught in class into a more complete understanding. I have received a scholarship from Auckland University and will be studying for a BSc in maths and physics.

Sarah comments: "My experience of the NZEST examinations was almost entirely positive. It was the preparation and study, as opposed to the papers themselves, which were the most daunting. However, I think that the NZEST exam system is certainly a challenge worth facing. What I found, though, in these exams, was that the extra work and study which was required of me made the exams not just a consolidation of the year's work, but also a gateway into my future studies. In English particularly, I was forced (although entirely voluntarily) to consider works and concepts which I otherwise wouldn't have been faced with until university. I also believe that the NZEST exams allow, in the arts subjects at least, room for creative thinking which is perhaps not present in Bursary. In these exams I found myself exploring ideas which had never, or only vaguely, occurred to me before the day of that exam. I think that perhaps for many students for whom the NZEST exams are a possibility, these are rewards of similar value to the monetary ones.

"Next year I intend to study towards a BA, majoring in English, at Otago University, with papers also in Classics, French, German and Gender Studies. I cannot help but see that the knowledge and skills- both general and specific- which have come as a result of sitting these exams will be invaluable to me both at university and beyond."

Photo courtesy of the Otago Daily Times