Around 50 schools tried out the ‘new and improved’ version of the TSA; here’s what to expect
The Education Bureau revised the TSA after vigorous complaints.The revised Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) has arrived. Primary Three pupils from about 50 schools in Hong Kong sat the Chinese-language test on Tuesday and the English-language test yesterday.
After educators and parents complained about the pressure the TSA placed on children, the government appointed a committee to review it. They recommended a try-out of a revised version of the exam for 50 schools.
On the new English exam, students have to read three – instead of the previous four – items for the comprehension section. There were no more than 400 words for the three parts combined.
An English teacher from Kowloon District, who did not want to be named, described the English TSA as “dead easy”, saying “Questions were straight forward, which a P3 student can handle flawlessly”.
In the writing section, students were required to write 30 words based on a four-panel comic, just as they did last year. “Writing is the most difficult out of the three parts, as it tests observation and vocabulary,” said the teacher.
In the listening paper, the teacher said the pace was not fast and students should have been able to pick up a number of key words to correctly answer the questions.
In the Chinese TSA, students only had to cope with two – instead of the previous three – items in the reading segment.
The items were also shorter, including no more than 1,200 characters, and there were no more than 20 questions per item.