Bay of Plenty teenagers are among thousands across the country waiting by their laptops to see if their exam efforts have paid dividends.

New Zealand Qualifications Authority released NCEA results this morning for more than 163,000 students nationwide following exams last November and December.

Ellie and Courtney McManaway are all smiles after successfully passing their 2014 NCEA exams. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

And it was a family affair in the McManaway household this morning with sisters Ellie and Courtney, both of Aquinas College, looking for the most important letters of A, M, and E – achieved, merit or excellence.

Ellie, 17, is pleased to have passed all five subjects – Level 2 Chemistry, English and French, along with Level 3 Statistics and Biology – even if some marks weren't what she hoped for.

She says: 'I was going into the French and English exams quite confident because of the mock exams and at school I had got a few excellences which I was quite proud of.

'For the two French papers I got merit and excellence which I'm quite happy with.

'For the stats exam where I got merit and excellence in the mock exams, I got two achieveds, which was probably a bit less than I was hoping for.”

Ellie's attention now turns to what will be a big year at high school, juggling Head Girl responsibilities, subjects including French and biology, and a vast array of sporting commitments – including basketball, netball and volleyball both at high school and on a national level.

'I'd like to go into veterinary science and study zoology eventually,” she adds.

'I would also like to continue playing sport for university and clubs as well.”

For older sister Courtney, the results held added weight as she prepares to head to Victoria University in Wellington to study a Bachelor of Science majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Computer Science and Management.

But the nervous wait was short-lived with pass marks for Calculus, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Religious Education all showing pass marks on the NZQA website.

'I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve and I think it's all about goal setting,” says Courtney. 'If you achieve them at the end of the year, that's great.

'I think it was coming out of the last exam - there was this great relief and then you don't think about it until the night before or the day of the results and it's back to stress.”

Students can enter the Learner Login section of the website to view their results while marked NCEA examination papers are returned to students from late January.

Students who sat New Zealand Scholarship examinations will be able to view their results online in mid-February.

National statistics on NCEA achievement will be made available on the NZQA website as soon as they are finalised towards the end of March.