The Examinations and Assessment Authority (EAA) on Saturday said a majority of students, sitting the Diploma of Secondary Education exams, have successfully been able to use its voluntary 'Check-in Smart' app to register their attendance.

This came after the authority on Saturday stopped using a separate EAA app for invigilators that checks candidates' attendance. It had failed twice over the past two days, ahead of Chinese and English language papers. Students, though, still need to use the 'Check-in Smart' app before taking the exams.

The authority said 80 percent of some 43,000 candidates sitting for Saturday's English listening exam had used the app to check in, and there had been no reports of abnormalities.

However, at an exam centre in Ho Man Tin, one student told RTHK that the app should also be dropped as it's much easier to check in the old-fashioned way.

"I haven't been able to use the app for the past few days. It should be cancelled as well. It won't load at all," he said.

An invigilator said it took only 15 minutes for staff to take attendance on Saturday because they didn't have to spend time trying to log into the invigilator app.