minnieuk
11th November 2007, 02:49 AM
How hard/easy is it to get a place at university when leaving school in NZ? My eldest son will have just completed his GCSEs when we move to NZ next year and would be looking to take A-level equivalents in NZ at school.
On the surface it looks like NZ schools are similar to UK with students taking exams in year 13 then going to university. In the UK I know you need top grades to get into the good universities but there are so many it seems there is a place for most students somewhere. How does it work in NZ? Is the university application very competitive as in the UK or will good grades get you a choice? Also does it matter which subjects you take - in the UK some are not accepted by some universities?
Also I'd really appreciate any advice from anyone who's taken a child over at this stage of their schooling. How did they cope with adapting from GCSEs to NCEA. We have looked at the iGCSE but they don't do that many subjects and he is quite happy to move across to the NZ way of doing things although we wouldn't rule out iGCSE.
On the surface it looks like NZ schools are similar to UK with students taking exams in year 13 then going to university. In the UK I know you need top grades to get into the good universities but there are so many it seems there is a place for most students somewhere. How does it work in NZ? Is the university application very competitive as in the UK or will good grades get you a choice? Also does it matter which subjects you take - in the UK some are not accepted by some universities?
Also I'd really appreciate any advice from anyone who's taken a child over at this stage of their schooling. How did they cope with adapting from GCSEs to NCEA. We have looked at the iGCSE but they don't do that many subjects and he is quite happy to move across to the NZ way of doing things although we wouldn't rule out iGCSE.