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Hong Kong students copied set text, struggled with numbers during English part of university entrance exam: official report

  • Examinations and Assessment Authority releases latest report on the Diploma of Secondary Education examination
  • Officials highlight fact that ‘copying will be highly unlikely to provide the correct answer’

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Students sit for the Diploma of Secondary Education Exams at Queen Elizabeth School. Photo: Handout

Excessive copying from set text was the most common mistake made by Hong Kong students in the English paper for the university entrance exams, officials have said, while weaker candidates struggled to remember English numbers correctly during a listening test.

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Candidates also had difficulty with questions requiring inference when they attempted the reading comprehension part, according to the Examinations and Assessment Authority, which released its latest report on the Diploma of Secondary Education exams on Thursday.

“Markers reported that candidates seemed to have copied an excessive amount directly from text [in the exam paper] this year,” the authority said.

“In some items this is likely to result in no mark being awarded, as copying will be highly unlikely to provide the correct answer.”

Students prepare for the English language portion of the university entrance exams at Lee Kau Yan Memorial School in San Po Kong. Photo: Winson Wong
Students prepare for the English language portion of the university entrance exams at Lee Kau Yan Memorial School in San Po Kong. Photo: Winson Wong
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The report also pointed out that candidates struggled when required to read a text about two professors debating an element of Mars exploration.

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