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Peace Chiu

It was all smiles for four Primary Three pupils studying at Fung Kai Liu Yun Sum Memorial School in Fanling after they completed the revised Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) English language written and mathematics papers on Wednesday, with one saying it took him only five minutes to finish the maths paper.
Pupils were given 40 minutes to do the maths test.
“I took 10 minutes to finish the paper,” his friends chimed in.
Primary Three pupils from 50 Hong Kong schools take revised Chinese TSA exam, but some sit out after controversy
But a mathematics professor identified at least two questions in the maths assessment that were beyond Primary Three abilities.
Primary Three pupils from about 50 schools in Hong Kong took part on Tuesday and Wednesday in a trial for the TSA with revised tests.
The scheme was recommended by a government-appointed committee, which also suggested suspending the controversial assessment for all but around 50 schools this year, prompted by educators and parents’ complaints about the tests exerting undue pressure on primary school pupils.


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Thomas Mak Cheuk-hei, a Primary Three pupil from the Fanling school, said the maths paper was about two times easier than the usual school assessment.
“The questions were mostly multiple choice questions, and I finished the maths paper in five minutes,” he said.
The number of questions for the maths paper was reduced to 33, from between 35 and 40 for the past five years.
Shorter, less severe TSA paper launched but not all Hong Kong pupils are taking it
Cheung Chok-fong, a primary school principal who used to work at the Education Bureau in mathematics education support, noted that the paper was a lot easier with questions being simpler and more straightforward.
On whether the ease of the test would defeat its purpose, Cheung said she found the level of difficulty to be “appropriate” as the aim of the TSA was to gauge students’ attainment of basic competencies, and not to stream them into different bands.
But Dr Fung Chun-ip, an assistant professor from the Education University’s department of mathematics and information technology, criticised the choice of questions because of ambiguous wording and testing of algebraic thinking, which is not a basic competency for Primary Three students.
While the students at the Fanling school generally found the maths and English language papers to be easy, they said the English composition section was a bit difficult. Some of the main issues included not having enough time, finding it difficult to express their thoughts in English and not knowing how to spell certain words.

Hong Kong Primary Three pupils sail through revised maths test, but balk at English composition

These four pupils at a school in Fanling found the maths exam too easy. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

Education

One student in Fanling says he took five minutes to complete the maths exam, but pupils faced problems with one of the English tests
