An investigation is underway after a Tauranga student’s claim that his NCEA results were marked incorrectly leaving him potentially unable to gain entry into a university course.

A year 13 student’s calculus results were marked with SNA, which stands for “standard not complete”, meaning he attended the exam but did not fill in the paper. Other students at the Tauranga school are also claiming to have the same issue, and all are adamant they filled in the paper.

The student’s mum, who wished to remain anonymous along with her son, said this might affect his chances of getting into university. He was also adamant he had completed his calculus examination. “His calculus [papers] have all got [SNA] on them, which means he turned up for his exam but didn’t write anything on it, which you know, does happen to some kids, but he’s a kid that’s waiting on this result to get university interim,” the mum said.

“But he’s absolutely certain he wrote on these papers.”

She said her son has been told he would have to do a bridging course to get into his desired course, engineering, which he has to agree to before January 19.

After several frantic calls to NZQA, they said they would investigate, but the process would take one to two weeks.

“Yeah, so it’s a long waiting game and it’s so incredibly stressful,” the mum said. “It’s just all very confusing and, you know, it’s hard enough leaving school.”

Two of the student’s friends in the same class have been given the same result, and another student from a different high school was also given an SNA for a different subject, despite them all completing the exam.

More than 49,000 students had accessed their results by 4.30pm. Photo / File

All exams were completed in person and with pen and paper, not digitally, the mum confirmed.

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“And again, they’re not kids that go to exams in year 13 and not write anything because why would you even bother going to the exam?” she said.

NZQA deputy chief executive of assessment Jann Marshall said each year there are a small number of results that take longer to process and mark.

“In these cases, a student can see an SNA result that is updated once the outstanding processing is completed,” Marshall said.

“Students who have an SNA result and would like more information should call NZQA’s contact centre.”

Meanwhile, more than 49,000 students had accessed their results by 4.30pm on Wednesday after results became available early this morning.

More than 160,000 students were able to view their provisional NCEA results this morning, and have until February 21 to apply for a review or reconsideration.

The results indicated NCEA pass rates dropped across the board for the third consecutive year in 2023.

“Since exams finished on 30 November, around 870,000 scripts have been marked before NCEA qualifications, endorsements and University Entrance awards were processed,” said Marshall.

NZQA’s contact centre will remain open until 7pm, with extra staff on hand to answer questions students may have about their NCEA results or University Entrance.

The NZQA call centre can be contacted by calling 0800 697 296.

“Students who have not received the results they hoped for, or have not achieved the credits they need, can find information on the NZQA website about the range of options and support available to them,” Marshall said.

Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.