'Not hard to pass subject replacing liberal studies'

The first exam for the Citizenship and Social Development subject for the DSE qualification was held on Tuesday, with some students saying it was not too difficult. The subject has replaced Liberal Studies and only has two grades of classification, either “attained” or “unattained”. Candidates are required to answer all questions in the paper and the topics covered include education development on the mainland, China’s overall rise in national power, the application of artificial intelligence and national identity recognition. At an examination hall in Ho Man Tin, one student said the questions were quite easy and he was confident he could pass. “That's because the answers can be copied from the data supplied. And by using reasonable deduction, I think I can get the ‘attained’ grade,” he said. Another student said the “pass or fail” grades gave him more time to prepare for other subjects. “It’s less of a psychological burden. I could spend more time on other subjects. Because I don’t need to put too much effort to obtain ‘level four or above’ grade in this subject. I just need to pass, for example to get a 40 or 50 percent score, then I can get into my ideal university,” he said. Lit Ho-cheung, who teaches the subject at Scientia Secondary School, said the difficulty and number of questions in the paper were in line with expectations, and believed 90 percent of candidates would pass. “I guess the overall wording choices in the questions and the distribution of questions and scores appear to align with our expectations," he said. "For example, the entire paper has a maximum score of 42, which is probably lower than the score for the liberal studies exams in the past. Since the paper also consists of multiple-choice and short-answer questions, candidates should have sufficient time to complete it thoughtfully.” He added he doesn’t think the paper asked students to take a stand on issues, but rather explain or interpret certain statements with their own words. Candidates also took part in a compulsory trip to the mainland, earlier in their studies, as part of the curriculum.