Students in Hong Kong have received their results for the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (DSE) – the local university entrance exam taken after six years of secondary schooling.
This year’s exams saw 16 students with perfect scores, a record since the DSE’s launch in 2012. It included the second-ever “ultimate top scorer”, who achieved the highest marks among all top candidates. He was also the first cross-border high-flyer.
While 129 students have achieved top marks over the past 14 years, there are also thousands who score “zero” every year. South China Morning Post examined the exams, taking a look at its history and a little trivia behind the DSE.
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1. Why was the DSE launched?
Before 2012, the city’s students took two major university entrance exams: the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) for Form Five pupils and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE), also known as the A-levels, for Form Seven students.
The last HKCEE was held in 2011, and the final HKALE in 2012 – the same year as the first DSE exams.
This marked a transition from a British-style education system to a new model, commonly known as the “3+3+4” academic structure: three years of junior secondary education, three years of senior secondary education and four years of university education.
The change was also made to reduce students’ stress by consolidating the two exams into one.
Most DSE subjects are graded on a seven-level scale, from level 1 to 5**. Students who achieve level 5 in a subject are graded as 5, 5* or 5**.
2. Which schools have the most top scorers?
From 2012 to 2025, a total of 129 top scorers were recorded across 43 schools.
Before 2024, top scorers referred to students who attained a perfect score of 5** in all seven subjects that most students take, namely the core subjects of Chinese, English, mathematics, liberal studies and three other electives.
Since 2024, top scorers refer to those who also received the “attained” status for citizenship and social development alongside perfect scores in the other six subjects.
From 2012 to this year, the top three schools with the most top scorers were St Paul’s Co-educational College, with 22 students, followed by the Diocesan Girls’ School and Queen’s College, both tied at 15 top scorers each.
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Super scorers refer to students who receive the maximum mark in all subjects and an additional 5** in one of the two optional extended modules of maths.
There are at least 48 such students in the history of the exam, with St Paul’s Co-educational College again taking the crown, with 13 of its students earning the title. It is followed by Queen’s College and Diocesan Girls’ School, tied at five each, and four from Diocesan Boys’ School.
Under normal circumstances, students are only allowed to take a maximum of eight papers in the DSE. But some apply to take nine papers instead of the usual six to seven and have managed to get perfect scores.
Throughout the history of the DSE, there have been two “ultimate top scorers” achieving this academic feat – one in 2018 from La Salle College and another this year at the Hong Kong Chinese Women’s Club College.
3. What about those who score poorly?
Candidates who score less than level 1 will get “UNCL” on their report cards – “unclassified”, commonly known as “a zero score”.
The DSE’s 2012 launch year recorded the highest percentage – 5.9 per cent – of candidates who scored zero marks in the four core and 19 elective academic subjects. This number was followed by 5.6 per cent this year and 5.3 per cent in 2013.
4. Who are the oldest and youngest exam takers?
The oldest exam takers were aged 71 – one sat the DSE in 2023 and another took it this year.
The youngest candidate was Bryan Leung Chi-yan, a nine-year-old student who took the mathematics and mathematics extended part module 2 (algebra and calculus), which is commonly known as M2 in the city. In 2024, Leung got 5* in the compulsory part and a 5** in the extended module.
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5. Which subjects have the highest and lowest university entry rates?
The South China Morning Post analysed core and elective academic subject data from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority over a decade, from 2015 to 2024.
Citizenship and social development was excluded from the calculation as it did not offer grades and was only established in 2024.
The core subject with the highest rate of passing university entry requirements was the compulsory component of maths, with an average of 81.3 per cent of candidates attaining level 2 or above in the subject. This year, the passing rate was 83.4 per cent.
In contrast, English language was the biggest hurdle, as only an average of 52.6 per cent could cross the threshold at level 3 between 2015 and 2024. The rate this year was 53.6 per cent.
For academic elective subjects, an average of nearly 96 per cent of candidates across the decade could attain level 2 in chemistry, followed by music at 95 per cent and history at 94 per cent.
Only 87.3 per cent passed chemistry this year, almost 10 percentage points lower than the decade average. About 93.4 per cent passed history, and around 98.3 per cent of candidates passed music this year.
