Super 5 blitz new exam

More than 70,000 Diploma of Secondary Education examination candidates received their results yesterday. In the new examination, passing with flying colours no longer means scoring straight As, but straight level 5s. Five students - four boys and one girl - topped the results by scoring seven 5** grades.

Ma Ho-yin and Lau Ming-him come from Queen's College; Chou Ho-yeung attends Pui Ching Middle School; Chan Chun-ho is at Sing Yin Secondary School and Teresa Kwok Fong-yan comes from St Mary's Canossian School.

Teresa was delighted with her result. 'I am really excited,' she said. 'Three years of hard work finally paid off, and I will be able to study for a law degree, which is the course that I have always wanted.'

Ho-yeung said he was grateful to his parents for his success. 'My parents did not push me to study; they allowed me to be the best I could be,' he said.

He added that the liberal studies paper was not as tough as he expected. But he did feel under a lot of pressure because there were no past papers for reference.

'When doing the liberal studies paper, I think it is important to persuade examiners of your point of view by using suitable vocabulary and evidence,' he said.