[james the mechanic]

I’m just sending off, for full assessment of my qualifications to NZQA.
They want details of my ‘junior or general secondary qualification(s).’
WHAT???
1.) I simply do not and have not ever even possessed any of my GCSE certificates.
2.) I can’t remember the grades I achieved and in which subjects or with any certainty the subjects I took.

To confuse matters further, the vast majority of my education was in the US and I only did the last couple of years at secondary school (GCSE exams) here in the UK.
I just called my old school and its pre computer era it seems, so it’s unlikely they can tell me anything.
Do they really need this information?
I’m sinking in paperwork here:confused:
Somebody please help…
James

[macuser]

Hi James,

I just googled, "lost gcse certificates" and got links to different exam boards. They will search and issue you a duplicate, for a fee of course.

Hope this will help.

Helen

[CjChris]

I'm not familiar with UK schools or the exams you took, but I would think that your school(s) in the US will have transferred your grades/courses to the UK school(s) before you were allowed to take exams (right?), so all you need is a final transcript and/or certificate of completion of some sort from the UK school. But if they can't produce anything like that....well, more on that in a minute...

My US records were pre-computer era, too, so my "grade sheet" was a hand-filled in duplicate from way back when they used CARBON COPIES. It looked like a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy! :uhoh It looked hideous (all black and smudged) but it was all my secondary school had on file--they did NOT have a copy of my diploma nor did they have anything such as a "record of completion," (although my grade sheet did show that I had completed all requirements --in other words, all the little boxes had been filled in with a grade!).

My point is this: I really don't think it matters as much as they (NZQA) would have us think...I mean seriously, there's no way they could read my carbon copy records!!

It's so frustrating:( Your tertiary qualifications prove that you had a prior completion from secondary school, because unis and trade schools alike require that everyone complete secondary requirements.

It makes no sense to me why NZQA doesn't just accept all post-secondary certificates/degrees and leave it at that!!

So, get what you can--if nothing else get someone at your UK school to write a letter saying you completed all required credits and send that along. Surely they have some proof you took your exams there and completed your education. Heck, a letter is better than nothing, assuming you otherwise will have nothing.

Christine