To make sure you’re ready to sit a digital assessment you need to:
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get familiar with the digital assessment platform
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practice using the device you’ll use for your digital assessment
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set up NZQA student login and remember your login details – you’ll use these to access the digital assessment platform.
Use a suitable device and browser
You can also check if you can use a certain device for a digital assessment:
On this page
Video transcript
This video will give you a quick tour of how to navigate through a digital exam and will show you some of the features that are available to use.
Digital exams are accessed from the homepage of the NZQA website.
To log into a digital exam enter your NZQA learner login username or email and password.
It's important that you have created an NZQA account well before exam day so you don't have any problems logging in.
You can create your account on the NZQA website.
You can also reset your password here too.
Once you're logged in, the first screen you will see will explain the introductory pages before the exam starts.
The next page will show the standards you've been entered in.
Read the data collection agreement. NZQA will keep this data safe and will not share it in any way that could identify you.
There are a few reminders before you start. Read through them carefully and click next.
When your supervisor is ready to start the exam, they will read out the exam access code.
While you're waiting, make sure that you don't click outside the exam window or you may activate the anti-breach software and get locked out of the exam.
When the supervisor has read out the exam rules and the access code, type the code into the box and click next.
This is the exam overview page. It shows you how your exam is structured.
You can see how many pages need to be completed for each standard you're entered in. As you complete your exam, these boxes will show your progress. Some standards will only have one page to complete, others will have more.
You can read the achievement criteria for each standard.
To begin a standard, you can either click on the standard number located on the top bar or click the first blue box of the standard to get to the first page.
You can move freely between standards and pages within the 3 hours.
On the top bar of an exam page, you can move through exam pages to other standards and back to the exam overview page
You can also move to a previous or next page at the bottom of the screen.
If you need help using any of the features in the exam, check out our Help Guide, which is available on every page.
We encourage you to practice using all the features before exam day.
If you need to leave the exam room, click the blank screen at the bottom of the page so others cannot see your work.
When you're ready to submit, click Finish Exam on the exam overview page.
Before you submit, you can check your standards. The blue boxes will let you know if you've missed answering a page or left a response box empty.
This might be a planning box that you haven't used. Don't worry about those ones, but do check that you've answered every question.
When you're ready, click Submit Exam.
Remember to click close on the last page. Then your supervisor will know that you have completed the exam.
Explore the digital assessment platform
This video gives an overview of what the platform for digital assessments looks like.
Have a play
Digital assessment run-through
This practice activity is a hands-on introduction to help you become familiar with the digital assessment platform.
It takes you through the structure of a digital assessment and includes help on how to use the features found in digital assessments.
This activity does not include assessment material and student responses will not be saved.
Digital assessment practice (external link)
Finding past digital external assessments
Check out what your assessments will look like by using a past digital assessment.
You can access assessments in two ways:
- Use your student login under ‘Find past digital external assessments'. This removes the need for additional login details such as an NSN and verification code.
- Use the Find past digital external assessments tool on our website. You’ll need to ask your teacher for login details to access these. Teachers can find these login details in the Provider login for schools, under "Access copyright past exam content and past digital exams".
Try out some features of the digital assessment platform
Student checklist for digital assessments
You can get prepared by using our student checklist for:
Before your assessment
What to expect on assessment day
After your assessment
Students from Paraparaumu College and Rongotai College talk about their experiences sitting digital exams
Video transcript
[Two students from Rongotai College, Tane Riwai-Donnelly and Keelan MacFadyen, stand in front of a wall in their uniforms.]
[Tane Riwai-Donnelly speaks] Overall, I just thought it was cool. I mean, I was, I'm definitely much more comfortable on a computer than I am with a pen. So I thought that was good. That was like comforting, going into a three hour exam.
[Two students from Paraparaumu College, including Anna Wigmore, sit in a room.]
[Anna Wigmore speaks] I thought it was a good experience because I do do most of my internal assessments on computer.
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Jamal Fiso, stand in front of a wall in their uniforms.]
[Jamal Fiso speaks] It's much more easier for editing and actually just getting your ideas down and getting the work done. So yeah, I liked it a lot.
[Two students from Paraparamum College, Joshua Ogier and Josh Marshall, sit in a room.]
[Josh Marshall speaks] For me, I guess it was just like the ease of typing instead of writing. I can type a lot quicker than I can write and people can actually read typing.
[Joshua Ogier laughs and speaks] Yeah, I don't have to worry about my handwriting getting worse as I go along.
[Three students from Paraparaumu College, including Kaitlyn Mallinder, sit in a room in their uniforms.]
[Kaitlyn Mallinder speaks] And then when I forget to write things in and I have to do a little up and lots of small little writing.
[Kaitlyn Mallinder keeps talking while it shows some students at Rongotai College sitting a digital exam.]
It's like ‘Can the marker read that?’ and there’s a little bit of pressure on that.
[Tane Riwai-Donnelly talks while it shows some students at Rongotai College sitting a digital exam.]
Being able to, like, edit our work without,
[Two students from Rongotai College, Tane Riwai-Donnelly and Keelan MacFadyen, stand in front of a wall in their uniforms.]
[Tane Riwai-Donnelly speaks] with so little hassle. Like, all of our work is right here. The question is right above it.
[Three students from Paraparaumu College, including Kaitlyn Mallinder, sit in a room.]
[Kaitlyn Mallinder speaks] And then when you've done like lots of digital learning in class doing digital, it's really good because
[Kaitlyn Mallinder speaks while it shows an individual student taking a digital exam.]
you're doing the same format.
[Tane Riwai-Donnelly talks while it shows one student sitting a digital exam.]
It's good to save time. The fact that everything can be done so easily and quickly.
[Two students from Rongotai College, Tane Riwai-Donnelly and Keelan MacFadyen, stand in front of a wall in their uniforms.]
[Keelan MacFadyen speaks] Wasn't really the same sort of mundane you’d had for like nine, ten years.
[Keelan MacFadyen talks while it shows one student sitting a digital exam.]
It just made it a little different, a little bit more
[Two students from Rongotai College, Tane Riwai-Donnelly and Keelan MacFadyen, stand in front of a wall in their uniforms.]
[Keelan MacFadyen speaks] enjoyable than, say, writing an exam.
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Fares Fawzi, stand in front of a wall in their school uniform.]
[Fares Fawzi speaks] And there's like really nothing to be nervous about. It's just like anything you do, like anything
[Fares Fawzi talks while it shows one student sitting a digital exam.]
new, you do. Everything's fine. Everything will be resolved.
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Fares Fawzi, stand in front of a wall in their school uniform.]
[Fares Fawzi speaks] So there's nothing to worry about.
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Jamal Fiso, stand in front of a wall.]
[Jamal Fiso speaks] People are scared of change. So that's ultimately what it comes down to, just removing that stigma
[Jamal Fiso talks while it shows one student sitting a digital exam.]
that change is necessarily bad, and that we should just stick to our own old ways.
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Jamal Fiso, stand in front of a wall.]
[Jamal Fiso speaks] It’s sort of just accepting and trying to just be open to new things and technology as a whole.
[Jamal Fiso talks while it shows three students from Paraparaumu College sitting a digital exam.]
So it's just about being open minded and just trying to see
[Two students from Rongotai College, including Jamal Fiso, stand in front of a wall.]
[Jamal Fiso speaks] possibly how it can help us advance and take us to new places.
[NZQA logo: New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Mana Tohu Mātauranga o Aotearoa; Qualify for the future world, Kia noho takatū ki tō āmua ao!]
What students liked about digital assessments
Duration: 1:59 minutes
See what students from Paraparaumu College and Rongotai College say about sitting digital assessments.