Anxiety ... and relief over 'toughest' subject: Chinese
The pupils who aced the exams say Chinese was the one that worried them the most
Chinese-language results came as a pleasant surprise to some top scorers in the Diploma of Secondary Education exams who found it the most challenging subject and did not expect to do well.
La Salle College student Christopher Sum Hiu-fung, who scored seven level 5** results, said he had expected just a 5 - two grades lower.
"I think the Chinese-language exam is a game [testing] answering skills," said the high-flier, who aims to apply for the medicine and surgery programme at the University of Hong Kong.
The Chinese writing was the toughest. I worried about going off-topic
"You need to have a certain amount of knowledge of the subject, but when you're sitting an examination, you have to be clear about the rules of the game."
Fellow top scorers Tsang Ka-hing and Christopher Chan Wang-hei from Queen's College were also worried about the Chinese examination.
"The Chinese writing was the toughest," said Chan, who plans to study economics in Britain. "I worried about going off-topic."
Tsang said it was difficult to grasp the grading criteria for Chinese writing, making it tough to prepare for the examination.