Principals, maths teachers and students have all complained last week's NCEA Level 1 algebra MCAT exam was much harder than they were expecting.

Some NCEA students were reduced to tears, and others are said to have had their confidence shattered, by a "far too difficult" Level 1 algebra exam.

An apparent disparity between what students and teachers were expecting from the MCAT (maths common assessment task) exam, and what was delivered, has left schools angry and demanding answers from the NZ Qualifications Authority, which set the exam.

"This was the first high stakes external assessment for the country's Year 11 students this year and NZQA got it wrong," Hutt Valley High School principal Ross Sinclair wrote in last week's school's newsletter.

Try the exam questions here and here, confirmed by Maths NZ and NZGrapher

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Sinclair said the exam "was set at a level that was far too difficult – by one account two curriculum levels too high".

"It has caused strong mathematics students to doubt themselves, has undermined students' confidence in both the examination process and their (good) teachers, has reduced students to tears in the exam room and made several have doubts about whether they have a Mathematical future."

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An NZQA spokeswoman said the authority was aware of concerns raised about the exam and, over the next few days, would be responding directly to those who had complained "to assure students, their parents and schools, of the quality of the MCAT assessment that Level 1 students have undertaken this year".

"The parts of the paper we've been told some students found more challenging than they expected relate to applying knowledge to use maths concepts and methods to solve algebraic problems, rather than answering straightforward skills questions (for example, being asked an open ended question and formulating a mathematic response which presents findings)," she said.

"Answering questions in this way is in line with the NCEA standard that the paper relates to and MCAT papers have increasingly been including questions of this nature over the last few years."

A teacher at another Wellington high school said the exam was "very different in style and considerably more difficult than in previous years".

"It was grossly unfair because it was not aligned with what NZQA had instructed teachers to teach and what the students had prepared for," he said.

"Students, parents and teachers would like to know how and why this was allowed to happen. And they would like reassurance that it will not happen again."

Student comments on Facebook echoed the view that this year's exam was very different from those of previous years, and much harder than had been expected.

"Teachers tell us to look for easier questions so we feel relaxed. 'Chose the questions that are as easy as taking an apple off an apple tree' however on question 1 I couldn't even reach the tree!" one wrote.

"Once the time was up, my whole exam room spewed out words which should not be repeated. Even those smarty pants in my class didn't feel they could reach an excellence [level] so how does it make all those merit and achieved students feel. Frustration and disappointment is all that fills my mind."

Sinclair, who is chair of the Greater Wellington Secondary Schools Principals' Association, said he had been asked by other principals to prepare a formal letter of protest to NZQA.

"Each of our schools has experienced the same dismayed reaction from our students. We will make that clear to NZQA."

The NZQA spokeswoman said the MCAT assessment "was developed by an experienced team with expert knowledge of mathematics assessment and reviewed by several current secondary school teachers".

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