Hong Kong DSE record as 16 students achieve perfect scores
About 38.5 per cent of DSE candidates, or 16,393 students, also attained minimum entrance requirements for city’s eight public universities
Sixteen students have achieved perfect scores in Hong Kong’s university entrance exams, a record for the diploma programme and up from 11 last year, with authorities attributing it partly to a decrease in lesson time for core subjects following a curriculum change.
One top Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) scorer secured the highest grade across seven subjects, including three core ones and four electives and the extended maths module, as well as securing an “attained” grade in citizenship and social development.
About 38.5 per cent of 42,795 DSE day school candidates, or 16,393 students, attained the minimum entrance requirements for the city’s eight public universities, up from 38.4 per cent, or 15,629, last year.
In all, 55,489 candidates sat the exams, including the two oldest, aged 71 and 66 years. The youngest candidate was 10 years old and took the maths paper and the maths extended part.
Figures from past years suggest that about 12,000 of the 15,000 university places will go to DSE candidates who had applied via the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas), with a student counsellor saying that those with marginal results should adopt a more conservative approach in selecting courses.
The remaining 3,000 places are typically offered to those with non-Jupas qualifications, such as those taking the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme.