NZ Scholarship Physics

What NZ Scholarship Physics is

Physics is the Scholarship subject where the formula sheet is handed to you, so the paper tests whether you can choose and combine ideas rather than recall them. Entry is through your school, with no fee for domestic students, and the award is around the top 3% of Level 3 physics students.

Scholarship Physics is assessed by one three-hour examination, performance standard 93103. NZQA's 2026 specification says individual questions may cover the content of more than one achievement objective in the New Zealand Curriculum up to Level 8, in contexts that may be unfamiliar, and some questions may involve extended discussion where you judge what is needed. Questions on practical work may ask about sources of error, reliability of data and validity of conclusions. Assessment is limited to a selection of the content of the Level 3 physics standards. For P3.5, Modern Physics, the content is the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, the photoelectric effect, wave and particle duality, a qualitative description of the strong interaction and Coulombic repulsion, and binding energy and mass deficit. Knowledge from curriculum Levels 6 and 7 is assumed.

The NZ Scholarship Physics exam in 2026 and 2027

NZQA's 2026 timetable puts Scholarship Physics on Wednesday 18 November, in the morning 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 Physics specification, so the 2026 one is the latest. The 2026 paper is a printed exam with four questions. You need an approved calculator, a ruler and a protractor, and NZQA says all necessary formulae, constants and data will be provided.

• Show all working. NZQA says calculations should have appropriate significant figures and correct units, and that explanations and calculations should be well set out and concise.
• The exam booklet in 2025 had a total score of 32 and said all the questions should be answered.
• Explain fully. The 2025 booklet says answers to describe or explain questions should have all logic fully explained.

How NZ Scholarship Physics is marked

Four questions, each marked 0 to 8, add to 32. An 8 needs a flawless, integrated answer, so a question where you reach the right number but never link it to the physics usually lands at 5 or 6.

NZ Scholarship Physics cut scores

In 2025 the Level 3 physics cohort was 10,631 and 2.96% were awarded Scholarship. The Scholarship score has sat at 17 or 18 for three years, while Outstanding moved between 27 and 28.

A worked example at Scholarship level

This invented question shows the thinking, not a real exam question. Light of wavelength 450 nm falls on a metal with a work function of 2.3 eV. Find the largest energy an escaping electron can have, the longest wavelength that works, and what changes if the lamp is made twice as bright. The photon energy is hc ÷ λ, using hc = 1240 eV nm:

A Scholarship answer then explains, not just calculates. Each photon gives all its energy to one electron, so the top electron energy depends on the frequency of the light, not how bright it is. A lamp twice as bright sends twice as many photons each second, so twice as many electrons escape, each with the same top energy of 0.46 eV. The stopping voltage stays 0.46 V. Wave theory fails here because it predicts that brighter light should give electrons more energy and that any frequency should work if the light is bright enough, and a metal does not emit below 539 nm however bright the light. That link between the equation, the observations and the failure of an older model 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 Physics 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 circular motion, simple harmonic motion, capacitors, electromagnetic induction and mass and binding energy, so it helps with the breadth Scholarship expects. The real exam is three hours, so also build stamina with longer problems. See the NCEA Level 3 Physics guide for the Level 3 standards, including 91523, 91524 and 91526.

What examiners said in 2025

From NZQA's 2025 Scholarship Physics assessment report:

• Preparation gaps. Some questions showed a lack of familiarity with entire sections of the material, and many candidates did not stay for more than the minimum time.
• Wording. The phrase "considering the forces acting" was used in several questions, so forces should be in your explanation or calculation.
• Circuit misconceptions. Many candidates had misconceptions about Kirchhoff's laws for cells in parallel, and only about 30% showed full understanding in the DC electricity question.
• Standing waves in open pipes. Many read diagrams of longitudinal waves as if they were transverse.

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