How students prepare for the certificate examination opinion survey 2008

Participating parties Dr Robert Ting-yiu Chung, Programme Director of Public Opinion Programme, University of Hong Kong Prof Kit-tai Hau, Department Chair of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ben Mak Oxford University Press

Research Methodology Student survey 1,026 successful exit interviews with students who just finished their Chinese/English/Mathematics certificate examination in April/May 2008 Stratified sampling in 30 examination centres Teacher survey 305 successful self-completed mail questionnaires Teachers of certificate level Chinese/English/ Mathematics subjects

Questions asked for students: What have you done to prepare yourselves for the exam (in school and outside of school)? Now you have completed the exam, what do you think are the most effective tools? for teachers: What have you done to prepare your students for the exam? In view of your students’ exam results in recent years, what do you think are the most effective tools?

Key findings - students * 在「使用那種方法預 備會考」的問題並沒有 「老師平日課堂所授的 學科知識」答案選項， 因為假設絕大部份學生 都有老師教授。

Key findings - teachers

Summary of data Students and teachers use a lot of different means to prepare for exam, but there is no clear consensus about the effectiveness of those tools ‘Practising past papers’ are deemed important by both teachers and students Exam guide books ( 天書 ) are deemed not useful by both teachers and students Students believe that teachers have not taught them enough skills to prepare for exam

Interpretation of data The new syllabus and exam format seem to have weakened the confidence of some teachers and students ‘Practising past papers’ can be helpful if and only if: The students have already mastered solid subject knowledge, which is the result of good classroom teaching. NSS will not change this. On the other hand, pure drilling and memorizing “tips” will not help Past papers are used to gauge students’ strengths & weaknesses Scores are used as a motivator to show improvement and encourage self-learning

Interpretation of data Choosing a good textbook and relevant learning materials provided by publishers are good enough to replace exam guide book ( 天書 ) Tutorial centres marketing expert. They package themselves as exam expert. But teachers can do equally well by conducting more sharing with other teachers and better utilize exam related materials provided by publishers

The role of Oxford Continue to provide comprehensive, accurate, up-to-date and yet easy to use textbook package. Because teaching will become even more important in NSS. Enhance our already powerful question bank and on line learning platform. More past-exam-like questions will be included. New features will be added to motivate self- learning. We have just opened a new production and IT centre in Shenzhen to support the development work. Enrich our teach support programme with territory-wide workshops, regional sharing groups, up-to-date exam analysis, etc.