He has spent a majority of this year preparing for 36 important hours which will determine his future.
St Paul Collegiate’s Hugo Brown is calm, because this year 12 student is ready for the 12 NCEA level 2, NCEA level 3 and scholarship exams he is sitting this week.
Hugo has set himself up for success, by studying four hours a night, but says it is important to break up those hours.
"It’s not necessarily the length that determines the quality of study. You could sit there for hours on end and it’s not very helpful. I do a bit of exercise, like I play squash to break it up."
Hugo, who is originally from Opotiki and boards at the school says that he gets an adrenaline rush before exams but calms himself down before entering.
"You either know what you're going to do or you're not. Better to be calm."
Hugo is sitting six subjects at level 2, three of those subjects at level 3 and sitting those same three subjects at scholarship level.
"Scholarship level is quite a big step up even from level 3 but a lot of it is down to just practising. It’s about getting the basics right, like in calculus you have to know how to integrate things and differentiate things and it’s about applying it to things you wouldn't usually."
Hugo’s ambition is about the long race. When he finishes school he want to study either medicine or engineering.
"I'm really quite open to that idea. It’s not set in stone and is subject to change, but it’s what I'm looking at now."
His favourite subjects are chemistry and calculus.
"I like the certainty of maths, especially calculus. You know there is going to be a set answer." When his exams are over Hugo will celebrate by going home to Opotiki and "chilling" by the beach.
"I'm going to take a couple of days off, go home to Opotiki, catch up with a couple of friends and relax for as long as I can."
Hugo is the top year 13 calculus student at St Paul’s Collegiate and is only one of three New Zealand students selected to attend the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra, Australia next year. Nationally, more than 143,000 students are signed up for NCEA and New Zealand scholarship exams, NZQA deputy chief executive of assessment Richard Thornton said.
Almost 11,000 of those are Waikato students set to show what they know over the coming weeks. The first exam – scholarship-level drama – was held last Friday morning and today will see about 39,000 candidates around New Zealand sit NCEA level 1 science.
Over the exam period there will be 120 sessions and the largest will be on Wednesday morning when about 47,200 students nationwide sit level 1 English.
The Waikato’s biggest exam is also level 1 English, with 3736 students signed up.
Thornton wished all students the best of luck for their exams.
"The end-of-year NCEA exams are a very important part of gaining NCEA and NZQA. School staff, parents and whanau will continue to support students over the coming weeks as they sit their exams."
NCEA results are expected to be released online from mid-January.
EXAM TIME
In the Waikato there will be:
- Total students signed up: 10,885
- Level 1: 5096
- Level 2: 4356
- Level 3: 2871
- Scholarship: 715
