Qualifications Authority figures show teenagers ended October with about 300,000 fewer NCEA results in the bag than at the same time last year.
The figures also show big variations in the way lockdown affected NCEA results in different parts of the country.
Schools in Tasman for example had reported 40 percent fewer excellence results than normal, while in Gisborne the figure was just two percent.
Education correspondent John Gerritsen speaks to Corin Dann.
