Question 1

What is NCEA AS 91599 about?

Accepted Answer

You need to pick a real social issue you care about, plan and actually carry out a social action (like a campaign, protest, or community project) designed to push for policy change, and then reflect deeply on what you did, why you did it, and what difference it made. You're not trying to single-handedly change government policy—you're demonstrating that you can think through the issue, act on your values, and honestly evaluate whether your action worked.

Question 2

What do students need to do for AS 91599?

Accepted Answer

1. Describe a real social issue and identify the specific policy you want to influence with your action 2. Plan a social action that considers ethical implications and different people's viewpoints, values and perspectives 3. Carry out the social action and document your personal participation in both the planning and doing 4. Evaluate how well your action worked, including what went well and what didn't work so well 5. For Excellence, compare your action against alternative approaches and critically judge whether it was the most effective choice

Question 3

What's the difference between Achieved, Merit, and Excellence for AS 91599?

Accepted Answer

Achieved: You describe the issue and policy clearly, show you planned and participated in a real action, and reflect on what happened using social studies ideas and specific examples. Merit: You explain in depth how your action worked and didn't work, analyse the strengths and weaknesses of what you did, and anticipate the real and possible consequences of your action. Excellence: You critically evaluate whether your action was actually effective by comparing it with other ways you could have tried to influence the policy, and make a justified judgment about the best approach.

Question 4

What mistakes do students typically make in AS 91599?

Accepted Answer

1. Describing the policy change you want but not explaining why it matters or what issue it actually addresses—examiners want to see you connect the dots between the problem and the solution 2. Planning an action without genuinely carrying it out, or doing an action but not documenting your personal role in it—this is an internal assessment so you need real evidence of participation, not just a report of what happened 3. Writing about your action without using social studies concepts (like perspectives, values, rights, community, social justice) to make sense of it—the assessment asks you to use these ideas to explain your thinking

Social action involvement

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