2 of 4 Hong Kong top DSE scorers in university entrance exams to study medicine in city

Two of four Hong Kong students who scored perfect grades in this year’s university entrance exams on Wednesday said they would stay in the city to study medicine, while one remains undecided and a fourth will head to Cambridge in the UK.

The tally of perfect scorers in the latest Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams marked a record low since 2012 when they were introduced, with the four star pupils this year coming from three traditional elite schools.

Two of the high-fliers attended St Paul’s Co-educational College in Central, with one from Good Hope School in Choi Hung and the other from Queen’s College in Causeway Bay.

Last year, the city recorded 11 top DSE scorers, each from a different school.

The same declining trend in perfect grades was observed in the International Baccalaureate (IB) exams this year with 23 students posting top scores, compared with 93 in 2022, a drop of more than 70 per cent.

The DSE exams this year were held between April 21 and May 18 for 48,762 candidates. Two male and two female pupils scored a perfect 5** on a seven-level grading scale across all seven subjects, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority revealed on Tuesday.