If you're not earning over the lower earnings limit (£102 for 2011-12) and you don't get an NI credit for other reasons (e.g. as a carer or in receipt of JSA/IB) then a year won't count as one of the 30 you need for a full state pension. The lower earnings limit isn't the same as the figure you start paying NIC at (the primary threshold, currently £139 per week), so you can still have a qualifying year without actually paying any NIC.
You may already have the 30 years you need - as others have suggested, get a pension forecast to check.
If you have gaps in your NI record, HMRC will contact you with a deficiency notice. You can "buy" additional years by paying Class 3 NIC for non-qualifying years (I think it costs around £650 to make a non-qualifying year into a qualifying one).
I have returned to Uni for the next 3 yrs and was unsure how it would effect my NI contributions regarding my state pension. I rang them and they sent me a statement which you can request yearly apparently. I was glad I did this as it told me I had 29yrs worth of NI contribution in already (this surprised me as I thought I only had about 23/4 but apparently you get 3 yrs automatically from 16,17 & 18 yrs old)so I do not have to worry about my contributions for the next 3 yrs.
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