Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE)
(Source: HKEAA website)
The three-year senior secondary education system has been implemented at Secondary Four since September 2009. Under the new academic system, all students are expected to complete three years of junior secondary education followed by three years of senior secondary education. Students who entered Secondary One in September 2006 will sit for the first Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination in 2012, after completing six years of secondary education.
Most school candidates are expected to take four core subjects (Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and Liberal Studies), plus two or three elective subjects in the HKDSE. The HKDSE will make use of Standards-referenced Reporting (http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/hkdse/SRR/) of assessments. Standards-referencing aims at reporting candidates’ results against a set of prescribed levels of achievement based on typical performance of candidates at those levels. For each of the levels, a set of descriptors will be developed that describes what the typical candidate performing at this level is able to do. Candidate’s results indicate the standards achieved in terms of knowledge and skills regardless of the performance of the other candidates taking the same examination. This reporting system also enables stakeholders to understand explicitly what the candidates know and can do when they have achieved a certain level of performance. The results will be expressed in terms of five levels of performance, of which 5 is the highest and 1 the lowest. The Level 5 candidates with the best performance will be awarded a 5**, and the next top group awarded a 5*. A performance below Level 1 will be labelled as “Unclassified”.
A video on HKDSE is now available on the HKEAA website.
http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/HKDSE/hkdsevideo.html
For more details and latest news about HKDSE, please click here.
http://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/hkdse/
Assessment Information on Core Subjects
(Including sample papers and level descriptors)
Assessment Information on Elective Subjects