Hong Kong:

[Harold Schiffman]

Six-of-best for two straight-A students

Miranda Shek

Monday, June 30, 2008

Two students who sat this year's Hong Kong Advanced Level examination
have achieved six straight As, the Hong Kong Examinations and
Assessment Authority revealed yesterday. Last year no student got six
As. Speaking a day before the detailed results of the A-Level and
Advanced Supplementary Level examinations are released, authority
secretary Francis Cheung Wing-ming said 334 students achieved three
grade As or more in this year's examination, compared with last year's
302.

The pass rate for English has also rebounded 0.5 percentage points to
74.4 percent, after hitting a 12-year low last year at 73.9 percent.
However, the results still lag behind the 2004 pass rate of 79.6
percent. Asked whether the decline in the standard of English in the
past five years among students was due to the mother-tongue language
policy, Cheung refused to comment, describing the trend as a normal
fluctuation.

"There are many factors contributing to students' level of English,
including the quality of teaching, language environment in schools and
parental guidance. The authority has observed the standard of English
has remained the same compared with last year," Cheung said.

This is the fourth year in which candidates sitting A-Level exams have
graduated under the mother-tongue language policy. The pass rate in
Chinese language and culture also showed a slight rise from last
year's 94 percent to 94.1 percent.

Meanwhile, Cheung said there were 28 cases in which candidates' mobile
phones rang during examinations this year, a sharp decrease from last
year's 41 reported cases.

A total of 38,263 students took the A-Level examination this year.

Cheung also commented on a report by the Ombudsman into this year's
A-Level English listening test, in which problems with the
instructions for answering a question were found.

The authority carried out an internal investigation and found that
instructions given for a task in the test were based on the
preconception of the conventional meaning of ticks and crosses, which
the examination writers thought was sufficient.

Cheung said 93 percent of students understood the instructions.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=67890&sid=19574710&con_type=1


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