December 2022

Season’s Greetings from the HKEAA

With Christmas and the year 2023 soon upon us, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) wishes you and your family a joyful holiday season.

 

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the HKEAA. With the unwavering support of our stakeholders over the years, we have made rich achievements in administering a wide range of public examinations and assessments as well as international and professional examinations in Hong Kong for nearly 20 million of candidates. Despite the challenging environment lying ahead, the HKEAA will remain dedicated to providing quality examination and assessment services for students and members of the public to help them obtain reliable qualifications while in pursuit of their goals.

 

Come Join the HKEAA Open Day and Seminars on HKDSE Core Subjects

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of the HKEAA, our Tsuen Wan Assessment Centre will open its doors to the public on 14 January 2023. Visitors can learn more about the marking and grading of public examinations and try out various systems used in public examinations, including Onscreen Marking and answer scripts scanning. And don’t miss the docent tour of the 45th Anniversary’s Mementos Exhibition featuring selected public examination-related items such as historical documents, publications, admission forms, question papers and archive photos.

 

Meanwhile, the popular information seminars on the core subjects of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) will be held online on 7 January 2023. Assessment Development Managers will introduce the assessment requirements of Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and Liberal Studies subjects. Senior secondary students and their parents are welcome to join the seminars.

 

Registration is now open and please click here for details.

Prof Wei Xiang-dong (middle), Secretary General of the HKEAA congratulated Ms Chivas Phu Chi-wan (second from left) and Mr Alpha Ip Ho-hoi (second from right) for receiving the 2022 Ombudsman’s Awards

HKEAA Staff Commended for Service Excellence

For eleven years in a row, HKEAA staff members have received The Ombudsman's Awards for Officers of Public Organisations. This year, Ms Chivas Phu Chi-wan from the School Examinations and Assessment Division and Mr Alpha Ip Ho-hoi of the International and Professional Examinations Division were awarded by The Ombudsman for their professionalism and commitment to providing quality services for candidates and members of the public.

 

Since 2012, a total of 19 HKEAA staff members have received the recognition.

Promoting Assessment for Learning

Throughout the years, the HKEAA has worked closely with stakeholders in the education community to promote Assessment for Learning and provided valuable feedback to schools to enhance learning and teaching. Recently, we organised the third Research Forum and the 2022 Quality Assessment Management Accreditation Scheme (QAMAS) Certificate Presentation Ceremony.

 

The Research Forum with the theme of ‘Assessment and Education for the Future’ was held on 17 November with nine assessment and education experts from the Mainland, Hong Kong and overseas sharing their insights from studies on digital assessment, Assessment for Learning, STEM education, and large-scale international survey assessment. A panel discussion session was also held featuring scholars from different regions on ways to enhance education through assessment. For details about the forum, please click here.

 

In addition, in recognition of schools’ commitment to quality examination and assessment management, 15 primary and secondary schools were accredited in the 2022 QAMAS Certificate Presentation Ceremony on 29 November. Around 60 school principals and teachers joined the event physically or via webcast. The event also featured an experience sharing session on ways to develop a contingency plan to manage the risks of examinations and assessment activities in schools. The QAMAS is now welcoming new applicants. Please click here for details of the scheme and snapshots of the ceremony.

Scholars from different regions discussed ways to enhance education through assessment at the Research Forum

Growing Recognition of the HKDSE

As an important qualification for senior secondary students furthering their studies or pursuing a career, the HKDSE has continued to win recognition. A rising number of institutions across the globe have accepted the HKDSE for admissions purpose.

 

The total number of Mainland higher education institutions that accept the HKDSE will increase to 132 in the 2023/24 academic year. Apart from that, around 140 Taiwan higher education institutions currently admit Hong Kong students on the basis of their HKDSE results while more than 600 non-local higher education institutions admit Hong Kong students into their undergraduate programmes based on their HKDSE results. They include not only institutions in popular English-speaking study destinations, namely the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, but also over 300 German public universities. In Germany, the HKDSE is considered as equivalent to the German school leaving certificate (Abitur). Candidates with a minimum of level 3 in the four core subjects and two elective subjects in the HKDSE can apply for admission to German public universities directly. For more details, please visit Recognition of HKDSE webpage and read the DSE Express.

 

The HKEAA has continuously promoted the HKDSE to stakeholders, including overseas institutions and organisations. In late October 2022, at the invitation of the Association for Study in Japan Supports (Hong Kong), the HKEAA delivered an online briefing, in which its representative spoke on the latest developments of the HKDSE, including the arrangement for Category C (Other Languages) examination for the 2025 HKDSE and beyond, the overall performance of the 2022 HKDSE candidates, the important dates for the 2023 HKDSE, etc. Around 30 admission officers of Japanese tertiary institutions attended the briefing.

Results of the 2022 HKDSE Predicted Level Study

In October 2022, the HKEAA announced the results of the latest HKDSE Predicted Level Study based on the internal assessment marks of about 38,100 school candidates submitted by nearly 90% of participating schools. Among the four core subjects, the outcome of English Language is more accurate with the predicted levels of about 70% of candidates matching their actual HKDSE levels. About 29% of the predicted levels are one level above or below candidates’ actual levels. In other words, 99% of predictions lie within one-level deviation from HKDSE actual levels.

 

For the three other core subjects of Chinese Language, Mathematics Compulsory Part and Liberal Studies, the percentages of exact matching with the actual HKDSE levels are about 50%, 56% and 50% respectively, while more than 40% of the predicted levels lie one level above or below candidates’ actual levels in the HKDSE. Nevertheless, the predicted levels for elective subjects are less accurate due to the smaller candidatures, fewer entries by schools in those subjects, the variations in schools’ HKDSE results over the years, etc.

 

The HKEAA plans to conduct another Predicted Level Study in 2023 and explore mechanisms to improve prediction accuracy, so as to provide more useful feedback for schools to improve the validity and reliability of their internal assessments.

 

An online school briefing was held in late October to provide teachers with an overview of the results of the latest study. Please read the press release and click here for the reference materials for school briefing.