NZ Scholarship Biology

What NZ Scholarship Biology is

Biology is the only one of these four papers with three long questions, each built round a resource such as a graph, a data table or a short article. Entry is through your school, and about 3% of Level 3 biology students are awarded.

Scholarship Biology is assessed by one three-hour examination, performance standard 93101. NZQA's 2026 specification says the questions require analysis of biological contexts and the use of ecological, genetic and evolutionary concepts to integrate biological knowledge and skills into an extended answer. The curriculum examined includes the biology achievement objectives up to and including Level 8 of the New Zealand Curriculum, which means the Level 1 to Level 3 NCEA biology standards. Resource or stimulus material is provided for each question, and you are expected to integrate it into your answer.

The NZ Scholarship Biology exam in 2026 and 2027

NZQA's 2026 timetable puts Scholarship Biology on Thursday 19 November, in the afternoon session. The 2027 timetable is not out yet: NZQA says exams run from 9 November to 3 December 2027, and at the time of writing it has not published a 2027 Scholarship Biology specification, so the 2026 one is the latest. The 2026 paper has three questions, all of which should be attempted, and NZQA's specification says it can be sat online or on printed paper. It does not list any equipment or give a formula sheet.

• Total score 24. The 2025 booklet had three questions and a total score of 24, so each question is worth 8.
• Use the resource. Integrate the stimulus material into each answer instead of copying it out.
• Extended answers. Questions ask for connected, well-organised writing that uses ecological, genetic and evolutionary ideas together.

How NZ Scholarship Biology is marked

Three questions are marked 0 to 8 and added for a total of 24, so one weak question removes a third of your marks. Each answer is an essay, so structure counts as much as content.

NZ Scholarship Biology cut scores

In 2025 the cohort was 11,208 and 3.03% were awarded Scholarship. The ranges were identical in all three years, 13 to 18 and 19 to 24, which is unusual and means the bar is steady.

A worked example at Scholarship level

This invented question shows the thinking, not a real exam question. A recessive allele for pale skin affects 4% of 5000 lizards on an island. Find the carrier frequency, and predict the effect if predators take every pale lizard. With q² = 0.04 the allele frequencies follow from Hardy-Weinberg:

So 32% of lizards, about 1600, are carriers, and 4%, about 200, are pale. If every pale lizard is eaten before breeding, the recessive allele frequency in the next generation is q ÷ (1 + q) = 0.20 ÷ 1.20 = 0.167, so pale lizards fall from 4% to 0.167² = 2.8% in one generation. A Scholarship answer then evaluates. Selection removes the allele only slowly, because most copies are hidden in carriers, so a reservoir of carriers keeps the allele in the population. The model also assumes a large, randomly mating population, no mutation and no migration. On an island of 5000 that is not fully true: chance (genetic drift) matters more in small populations, and predators that learn to hunt pale lizards could change the selection pressure. Linking the calculation to the assumptions and to the wider ecology is what scores 7 or 8.

Exam answers

The answers and a worked mark scheme come with today's paper once it is marked. We do not publish official or past paper answers. Every question on the daily paper is our own.

Use the daily paper as a practice exam

Uni-Sine publishes a free daily paper on the NCEA Level 3 Biology track. It is a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, not a full NCEA exam and not a Scholarship paper, and it is not written by NZQA. It includes populations and ecosystems, inheritance and Hardy Weinberg, evolution and speciation, homeostasis and gene technology, so it helps with the breadth Scholarship expects. The real exam is three hours of extended answers, so also practise writing long, structured responses to resource material. See the NCEA Level 3 Biology guide for the Level 3 standards, including 91603 and 91605.

What examiners said in 2025

From NZQA's 2025 Scholarship Biology assessment report:

• Precise terms. Successful candidates defined and used terminology correctly. Many wrote "food" instead of "prey", and did not call competition interspecific.
• Copying the resource. Many rewrote the resource material instead of building on it.
• Population decline, not extinction. Candidates often said organisms would become extinct rather than decline.
• Context. Some applied New Zealand knowledge to an Australian ecosystem, such as naming possums and rodents as pests. Answer what was asked: causes of extinction were not required.
• Migration. Adaptations were not categorised as structural, behavioural or physiological, and timing and navigation were not justified in depth. "Global warming" was not accepted for global average temperature rise.

Read next

New Zealand · NCEA Level 3NZ Scholarship Chemistry: exam, cut scores, examplesNZ Scholarship Chemistry explained: the 2026 exam date and format, NZQA cut scores for Scholarship and Outstanding 2023 to 2025, and a worked example.