The number of top-scorers in Hong Kong’s university entrance exams has surpassed the record for a second straight year.

A total of 24 students achieved the perfect score in this year's Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams, eight more compared to last year.

Speaking on Tuesday, a day before the release of exam results, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) noted that the top achievers were 14 boys and 10 girls from 15 schools.

To achieve a perfect score, candidates had to secure the top grade of 5** in six subjects, alongside an "attained" rating in the Citizenship and Social Development subject.

Among the 24 top scorers, 11 also achieved one more 5** in the extended mathematics elective.

HKEAA Secretary General Prof Wei Xiang-dong said at a press briefing that the results were down to the students' hard work.

“From our point of view, the difficulty level and standards of attaining top scores should be equivalent year by year,” he said.

“I can only say that maybe students put more effort, prepared better, that's why they achieved better results.”

Overall, around 16,000 candidates, or 36.8 percent of the 43,500 secondary school candidates, met the general admission requirement of “332a33” for the city's eight publicly funded universities.

This means that they obtained at least level three in Chinese and English languages, a level two or above in the compulsory mathematics portion, levels three or above in two electives, as well as an “attained” in Citizenship and Social Development.

While there was a slight decline in the percentage of candidates achieving level three or above in Chinese and English compared to last year, Wei said this did not indicate underperformance.

“Even though you saw level three, there's a slight decrease. But at other levels: level four, five, we also see a slight increase, especially in English,” he said.

“We have to bear in mind, last year, the performance was really good, record high. So if you compare to the last five years, this year's level three percentage is still pretty much close to the other years.”

Separately, the authority said the two oldest candidates to sit the exams this year were aged 72 and 70, while the youngest was just 11 years old.

It also said that seven candidates were disqualified after being caught cheating during the examinations.

When asked if any of the incidents involved high-tech devices, Wei said exam personnel had been advised to remain highly vigilant and assured that all possible loopholes had been addressed.

One candidate also had their visual arts results downgraded by one level due to plagiarism in their school-based assessment.


Edited by Aaron Tam