One in five exam papers has already been marked, the Qualifications Authority says.
Photo: AFP
NCEA and Scholarship exams end this afternoon.
Today's papers include level one Spanish and level three German and teenagers sitting the exams told RNZ News it was hard to stay motivated for the last exams when their friends had already finished.
"It's real tempting not to study, because all your friends are just relaxing," said one Wellington secondary school student.
Another said the Qualifications Authority should rearrange the exam timetable so all students finished on the same day.
"I find it really stressful studying in itself and when my friends have finished and I'm still going it's doubly stressful," he said.
The Qualifications Authority said more than 146,000 students were entered in the exams and its markers would be dealing with about 600,000 exam scripts.
However, about 5000 students sat some of their exams on computers as part of the authority's moves toward digitising exams by 2020.
Paraparaumu College principal Gregor Fountain said his students sat the digital exams and the feedback from teachers and students was positive.
Mr Fountain said students were accustomed to working on tablets and computers, and boys were especially pleased to switch pen and paper for a keyboard.
"One of the comments that some boys have made to us have been that actually it allowed them to concentrate on their answers and not be worried about their handwriting," he said.
Meanwhile, about 100 maths teachers had put their names to a letter calling for improvements after problems with this year's level one papers.
Teacher Jake Wills organised the letter, which he said he would send to the Qualifications Authority on Friday.
Mr Wills said teachers had outlined three areas for change. They wanted a clearer indication of what would be in exams so teachers could prepare their students; excellence questions set from the appropriate curriculum level rather than drawing on the next level; and questions written in such a way that all learners could understand them and complete them in a reasonable amount of time.
The Qualifications Authority also said it employed about 1770 markers.
It said some exams had to be relocated because of flooding in Roxburgh, and in Tuakau students were able to continue working despite a power cut.
