No surprises when it came to the paper, though an “open letter” question might have thrown some students slightly
Students should have not had much difficulty with either parts of the exam.The HKDSE Chinese Language Paper 3 generally did not contain any surprises, according to students and Chinese teachers. Candidates are expected to have scored decently.
Paper 3 of the Chinese Language exam is made up of two papers: part A, the listening; and part B, integrated skills. Both parts test the student’s ability to synthesise verbal and written information, as well as societal issues and current events.
DSE candidate Miuccia Chan, 17, said that part A was, like yesterday’s papers, straightforward.
“The listening was quite simple, and it didn’t take too much effort to identify the right answers.”
Chinese teacher Jenny Lee Ka-sin agreed, saying that the level of difficulty of this year’s listening was about the same as every other year. “So long as the students could do simple deductions, identify the stances of the speakers, as well as analyse the listening for the question, the student’s performance would have been satisfactory.”
She cautioned that there were several instances of four-word Chinese proverbs that may stretch some students beyond the basics, but there weren’t any rare idioms that would have challenged students.
For integrated skills focused part B, students were required to write an answer from the perspective of a student council president writing a letter to the student body about learning outside the classroom.
Teacher Simon Man said the test overall was “very normal”, but that the integrated skills question may have thrown some students because it required them to write an “open letter”, which is not a commonly seen form.
Lee added that: “Many students would have rushed to include all the information for the integrated skills question. however, they may lose points because they forgot to take on the role of the student council president, and use the tone of an ‘open letter’.”
“Although the requirements were made quite clear in the recording, there are lots of points given in the recording which I struggled to copy down,” Miuccia said. “Overall, it came down to how quickly and accurately you could put everything into words, which was quite challenging for me.”
Lee says something next year’s HKDSE candidates should keep in mind is to prepare more broadly and not limited to targeted answers, and to review past papers and examiners reports.
“Candidates need to focus while answering questions, provide clear answers, and accumulate more news, current events, and cultural knowledge in the lead-up to the examination.”