As students examined their exam results yesterday, many who scored low marks noticed an odd pattern - their marks for liberal studies were unexpectedly high, even when they failed to answer all the questions.
One student, Leung Chung-yi, was surprised to see that he scored a level 4 mark in liberal studies - the top mark is 5** - after he scored level 1 in English, maths and chemistry and level 2 in Chinese and biology.
'I have no idea how I scored that 4,' he said. 'As far as I remember, I left one or two questions blank, because I had no time to finish them.'
Leung was one of several students who talked to the South China Morning Post at the Institute of Vocational Education's Haking Wong campus, where they were filling in online applications for various courses.
Held for the first time this year, the liberal studies exam consisted of two papers. Paper one required students to give opinions on population policy, tobacco control policy and party politics.
On paper two, they had to answer one of three questions.
They related to the controversial third runway for Hong Kong's airport, the impact of globalisation on Chinese culture, and ethical issues concerning DNA tests on fetuses and abortion.