NCEA results are out today, and at the Graham household, both father and son logged on in anticipation of seeing how many credits they got.

‘They', because father Fraser also teaches Maths at Aquinas College.

It's often forgotten that NCEA results are a big deal for teachers, too, who like to see how their students went.

Of particular interest to Fraser is his Year 10 extension class – the bright sparks who sat Level 1 Maths a year ahead of their peers.

He says 29 out of the 31 students got endorsements, which he's very pleased with.

'I'm stoked, they've done really well. They're a very good class.”

Among them is his son Michael, who joined thousands of others across the Bay of Plenty and the country nervously checking how many Achieveds, Merits, Excellences – and even Not Achieveds – he received in last year's external exams.

To his relief, there were none of the latter, although he is a bit miffed at getting one Achieved in a Chemistry paper.

Other than that though, the rest of his exams came back with Excellence – an amazing, and enviable, result for any student.

He took Level 1 Science as well, and says none of the exams really stood out for him in difficulty.

'Honestly they were all pretty standard – quite consistent,” he says.

They went much more smoothly than last Septembers MCAT exam, which made the news for its extremely difficult questions. Most schools rejected the results, or scaled the endorsements down to make it easier to pass.

'It had certain parts way above the level we were at,” recalls Michael, with Fraser adding the questions were 'ridiculous” and too focused on real-world application of the Maths, rather than the clarity or appropriate level of the problem.

'I don't think anybody walked out smiling,” says Michael.

There's no doubt most of the students from Aquinas College will be smiling today, though. 92 per cent of Level 1 students, 99 per cent of Level 2 students, and 91 per cent of Level 3 students at the school passed.

Fraser's already collated the results and uploaded them to the school website, partly to ease traffic to the NZQA website, which is running fairly slow.

As for Michael, he plans to sit several Level 2 exams this year (when he will technically be Year 11), so that by the end of high school he will have covered all the Science and Maths subjects up to Level 3.

'I'm thinking of becoming a surgeon, or heading into medicine,” he explains to this Maths-phobic journalist.

Students can check their own results via their Learner Login on the NZQA website.