'Exams are what you need to get through here,' said Victor Lo Wai-tak, formerly from Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit areas in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Now a sixth-former at Heung To Middle School, Lo, 19, was among this year's 26,000 self-study pupils making a last-ditch attempt to pass the city's last Form Five public exam, better known as the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination.
From now on, pupils will stay in secondary school for a sixth year and sit for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education, which replaces A-levels under a 3+3+4 curriculum from next year.
Although Lo scored six As in the HKCEE last year, he was not eligible for early admission to university because he only scored level 3 in English. Since then he has stepped up his efforts to improve his score. 'All I need is a level 4 this time to quality for my dream degree programme and become an airline CEO,' he said.
Lo, who arrived as a new immigrant four years ago, tried various ways to prepare for his last chance.
He recited words from newspapers and completed 10 years of past exam papers. 'I downloaded English radio programmes to practise my listening skills on my way to school,' he said.
'Avoiding Facebook and television was an investment for my future. You need to know the rules of the game.'