Digital Exams 

Digital Exams - Tauranga Boys' College

See also Exam Rules

Digital exams are done on student-owned devices (BYOD). In the event of device malfunction, students will complete their exam on paper.

Prepare Yourself

1) Get familiar with the exam platform.

Try out the practice activities on the digital exams page. This will help you get familiar with the digital exam platform. 

2) Look at other digital exams

Familiarise yourself with digital exams.

Use your NZQA Student Login to look at copyrighted past digital exams under ‘Find past digital exams’ 

3) Sort out your NZQA login – this is important

You’ll use your NZQA student login details to log in to the exam.

If you’ve already got an account, it’s important that you log in and check everything is correct.

If you’re new to NCEA, you need to create an account on the Login Options page. 


Prepare Your Device

1) Check your device

Complete the digital exams device check and make sure you

  • use one of these browsers:  Chrome 85+ or Safari 11+ 
  • you use one of these operating systems: Chrome OS; Windows 8.1, 10+, Apple Mac OS 10.14+ 
  • you know how to disable: Notifications, screensaver, automatic updates.


2) Do you need headphones?

If you’re doing a digital language or Te Reo Rangatira exam, you will need headphones.

Check that your headphones are compatible with the device you will use for your exam. 


Exam day and Results (NZQA exams)

1) What to bring on the day

Remember to bring:

  • your fully charged device (BYOD)
  • headphones (for digital languages and Te Reo Rangatira only).

Your teacher will let you know what else you need for the exam.

2) Logging in to the exam

  • Log into digital practice exams from the Digital Practice exam tile on the bottom right of NZQA homepage.
  • Remember, you’ll need your NZQA student login details to get in to your exam.

3) Get your results

  • Your teacher will tell you when you can view your marked digital practice exam. 
  • Access them by logging in to your NZQA account on NZQA’s website.
  • To save your marked response, you can screenshot and save, or drag and drop the text into a document to save.
  • Digital practice exam marked scripts will only be accessible until 5 November so save them before this date.


Breach of exam rules

If you try to move away from the exam browser or to access other areas of your device, you’ll get a warning message. If you don’t return to the exam immediately, you’ll be locked out of the exam. To make sure you’re not locked out by mistake, check you’ve disabled your screensaver, notifications, automatic updates and any browser extensions on your device.

The supervisor can unlock the exam for you but may need to report this as a possible breach to NZQA.


Other information

You can choose to move to paper at any time before or during the exam. If you’ve started a digital standard, we encourage you to complete the standard digitally before moving to the next standard on paper. If you choose to switch to paper, the rest of the exam must be completed on paper. You can’t switch back to the digital exam.

If there’s an issue with technology, for example if your device freezes, runs out of battery or loses connection to the WiFi, you won’t be disadvantaged. If you’re having an issue raise your hand and the supervisor will come and help you. If the issue can be resolved easily, you’ll be given extra time at the end of the exam to make up for the time lost. If it can’t be resolved easily, you might need to move to a paper version of the exam. The exam platform saves your work every 30 seconds and the supervisor can show you the work that’s been saved. You won’t need to repeat what you’ve already done on your device.