DSE English Scoring Criteria — Do You Know?

Do You Know the DSE English Grading Criteria?

Every year between April and May, around 60,000 to 80,000 secondary school students across Hong Kong prepare to face the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examination. Many have likely heard of the 3322 entrance requirement for the 8 UGC-funded universities. The so-called 3322 means that candidates must achieve at least a Level 3 in both Chinese and English among the four core subjects, and Level 2 in both Mathematics and Liberal Studies; there are 8 levels of grading in total for each subject, ranging from the lowest U to the highest 5**. Most senior secondary students are absolutely familiar with these levels because their teachers have been brainwashing them with reminders since Secondary 4. Furthermore, around the time the results are released each year, newspapers inevitably provide extensive coverage of the top scorers who achieved 5** in 7 or even 8 subjects.

When I teach regular or enrichment English courses, whenever I ask students if they can state the criteria examiners use to determine whether a candidate achieves the highest 5** or the lowest U across the four papers of Listening, Writing, Reading, and Speaking, most fall into a deathly silence, or can only answer vaguely, "If your English is good, you get 5**; if it's bad, you get a U!" The strange thing is, since students want to know their proficiency level, why do they neglect the grading criteria?

If this question involved other subjects, the situation would be completely different, as students would not need to guess. For example, in Mathematics, students can clearly point out that to get 5** or other levels, a candidate cannot get more than a certain percentage of questions wrong, and many questions have standard answers as grading benchmarks. This is why we often hear of teachers practicing papers with students in other subjects, as they believe that the more papers are practiced, the better the students understand the question patterns, thus securing their success.

In fact, anyone can understand the mentality of top-tier students wanting the best grades and those who are struggling simply aiming for a pass. As outsiders like parents and teachers, we certainly want our children and students to excel, but if the candidates themselves cannot state the exam's grading criteria, how can they know themselves and their enemy to win every battle?

In reality, does having extreme mastery in a field mean one can be invincible in an exam? I have worked in education for 20 years and have witnessed many ironic examples. The first example is my colleague, an English teacher who is proficient in every aspect of English usage and is renowned in the school; however, his writing ability was assessed as "fail" in the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers. The second is my student, a Hong Kong representative athlete who has been participating in global competitions since she was 12, yet she was also assessed as "fail" in the Physical Education public examination.

The third is the famous talent Chip Tsao, whom many know. In 2009, the HKEAA set grading criteria for the new Liberal Studies curriculum, stating that it was easy to pass. i-Cable News invited Chip Tsao to take the paper, and then had three Liberal Studies teachers grade it, including Tang Fei, who co-hosted "The Nation's Fun" with Wong Oi many years ago. To avoid affecting the marking, the teachers did not know the identity of the "candidate" beforehand, but the result was unexpected—he was actually graded as failing Liberal Studies. The conclusion is that relying solely on subjective "good" or "bad" to determine exam grading criteria is highly unreliable.

Many people think that the Writing and Speaking papers are dominated by subjectivity. As an examiner for the Writing and Speaking papers of the Advanced Level Examination for many years, my experience shows that there are actually objective conditions to follow for grading. To help students better understand the English grading criteria, I have categorized [Passing] into three major levels: High, Medium, and Low, as shown in the attached image.

Teacher Rowena

Possessing 25 years of experience in teaching English, I have witnessed many students harboring different degrees of fear and difficulties in learning English. To enhance students' interest in and quality of English learning, I have published books and developed the Double R Integration Method (details at www.doubleramalgam.com), a set of methods suitable for Chinese speakers to learn English, allowing students to learn English more effectively and systematically.

Students must first know whether they can master the basic requirements of each level before they can accurately estimate their grades. To learn more details about each level, don't miss the next issue.