In New Zealand, the traditional academic path typically leads through NCEA or Cambridge exams, often seen as the gold standard of secondary education. Many homeschoolers feel pressured to follow suit, fearing that anything less might limit their children’s future. Yet, for a growing number of New Zealand families, the GED offers a refreshing alternative. It’s a simple, internationally recognised school-leaving certificate that does the job without dictating how you educate at home.
Still, there’s an unspoken assumption that lingers: that more traditional exams somehow produce better students.
But let’s set the record straight—the reputation of the exam does not determine the calibre of the student.
Homeschoolers who choose the GED are not opting out of excellence. They’ve already laid that down, year on year through all the seasons of home education. They’re simply choosing a path that respects the unique rhythm, depth, and flexibility of home education. The GED doesn’t make students capable. It simply certifies what has already been built—often over a decade or more—through intentional, values-driven learning and real-world experience.
The exam itself is just a tool. The calibre of the student is forged in the years of one-on-one conversations, personalised projects, family discussions around the dinner table and the steady encouragement to pursue their interests with integrity and grit.
We’ve seen this clearly in the stories of some of our GED graduates from New Zealand and beyond. All eight universities in New Zealand accept students with the GED and SAT combination. We have emails to confirm this too and the results of some of our top students, speak volumes about the quality of home education and students who have taken the GED.
Lucille Erwee, who completed her GED before enrolling at Massey University, graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) degree in 2022—in the top 5% of her class. That distinction wasn’t earned because she wrote a more “prestigious” exam, but because she brought diligence, maturity, and creative thinking to everything she did. Now her career is taking off, because of her character and determination: Career Lift-off: How Character, Not Prestige, Led to Success
Allyson Pietersen, another GED graduate, went on to complete a Bachelor of Science in Information Science, majoring in Business Systems. She passed Cum Laude in 2022, proving once again that the quality of a student’s education is not measured by the exam board on their certificate, but by the character, work ethic and curiosity nurtured long before they set foot on a university campus.
Justin Meyer completed a course in online animation studies at AnimSchool. Then, in 2021, he moved to Ohio in the USA and enrolled in Shawnee State University’s nationally ranked gaming engineering technology programme, where he earned academic honours on the President’s List. Read more on our GED Success Stories page
Brent, who earned his GED and is currently studying Computer Science through the University of the People, has made both the Dean’s List and Honours List during his studies. His success speaks not to the prestige of a particular exam, but to the solid academic and personal foundation that homeschooling allowed him to develop.
And then there’s Liam van Rooyen, who completed a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences Magna Cum Laude at the University of the People in 2023. As a top-performing student, he was consistently on the Dean’s List. His achievements weren’t shaped by the exam he wrote, but by the calibre of student he had already become.
These stories of top achievers and many others on our GED Success Stories page, remind us that the true test of a student lies far beyond the exam room. Whether they write the GED, NCEA or Cambridge, it’s the person behind the certificate who determines the outcome, not the exam board.
As a home-educating parent in New Zealand, you don’t need to replicate the school system to raise a capable, confident learner. You’re not “missing out” by choosing a different route. In fact, you may be creating space for something even more powerful: a student who learns with purpose, thinks independently, and takes ownership of their future.
So if you’re wondering whether the GED is “enough,” remember this:
It’s not the exam that defines the student—it’s the student who gives meaning to the exam.
And the calibre of a student who has been taught with care, guided with wisdom and allowed to grow at their own pace? That speaks for itself.