ESF schools hail A-level results
There were tears of joy and desperation yesterday as hundreds of students at international and ESF schools received their results in the British A-level examinations.
Lorraine Ma Wai-yan, 18, jumped up and down with joy when she discovered she was one of two students from South Island School who had scored six As.
'I want to study medicine at the University of Hong Kong, but they wanted me to get an average of over 90 per cent in four subjects,' she said.
'I am so happy that I got what I needed. I've saved my mother a lot of money because I won't need to study overseas.'
But there was room for improvement even among some of the happier students.
'I got one B in one module,' said Eugine Lui Yik-hei, 18, as he inspected an otherwise flawless results slip.
Nonetheless, he said he felt euphoric to have done so well. 'After two years' hard work, it all comes down to that one moment,' he said.
The ESF, which had nearly 500 students sitting the exams this year in four of its seven secondary schools, hailed this year's results as the foundation's 'best A-level results to date'.
Jane Foxcroft, principal of the ESF's West Island School, said its students had done 'amazingly'. 'Nineteen per cent of our 124 A-level students scored an A in three or more subjects,' she said.
About 100 Year 12 and Year 13 students at German Swiss International School sat A-levels and AS-levels.
Mary Peart, head of the school's English section, said school officials were delighted with this year's results. The school's students had received a pass rate of 100 per cent at A-level and 98 per cent at AS-level.
'They are good students, but these results are absolutely fantastic by any stretch of the imagination,' she said.
But there was frustration for some students whose marks were not as good as expected, or whose results slips were incomplete.
'I hate Edexcel,' said one aggravated student at South Island School after he discovered that the examinations body had marked some of his subjects as 'result pending'.
Nine students at Korean International School sat the exams, but a spokesman said the school was not able to break down the results.
Students at Sear Rogers International School in Mid-Levels also sat the exams, but a spokeswoman said no results were available yet.
The number of Hong Kong students sitting British A-levels is set to drop dramatically next year when all ESF secondary schools switch to the International Baccalaureate diploma, currently offered at Sha Tin College and Renaissance College.
'I think we would get through it, but it would definitely be harder,' said Jacqueline Fok Hoi-lam, 18, a four-As student at West Island School. 'It is really all down to your study skills and how hard you work.'
