Student rushes home to prepare for exams

With the exam for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education looming, Tony Lee sat anxiously, wondering whether he would be allowed to return home in time to take the test, also known as the HKDSE.

The 19-year-old was stuck in Wuhan, Hubei province, for almost six weeks. Meanwhile, two other Hong Kong students were experiencing a similar plight in the province, where the coronavirus outbreak has been most severe.

On Tuesday, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, Hong Kong's education secretary, announced that the HKDSE－the city's university entrance exam－will begin on March 27, as scheduled.

Luckily for Lee, he arrived back in Hong Kong on Wednesday on the first chartered flight from Wuhan, announced last month by the Hong Kong authorities.

Lee is currently in quarantine, and his first exam is slated for March 28.

He said he would like to see the exams postponed for a month, as that would give him time to settle at home and could also see an easing of the epidemic.

Lee's revision was interrupted on Jan 23, when a lockdown was imposed on Wuhan. He had arrived in the city the day before to visit his 85-year-old grandmother.

He attempted to cut short his visit and return to Hong Kong, but all flights and high-speed trains had been suspended.

Lee called both the Wuhan Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong government and the city's immigration department to explain his situation. Officials told him he would have to wait for the Hong Kong authorities to arrange an evacuation.

At the time, his biggest concern was a lack of textbooks.

"Without a printer, I had to read test questions on a computer screen and write my answers on a piece of paper," he said.

On Tuesday, he received a call from his physics teacher. After explaining the mistakes Lee had made in his last exercise, the teacher praised him for doing well, despite the hardships, and predicted that he would "get a star"－the highest or second-highest score－in the exam.

"That was when I felt eager to take the exam and try my best not to let my teachers down," Lee said.

HKDSE candidates can earn seven levels of distinction, including 5** for the highest level and 5* for the second-highest level, while the other levels run from 5 to 1.

If an examinee fails to take the tests, he or she is assigned scores based on their performance at school, according to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.

However, the highest score an absent candidate can receive is a 5－the third-highest in the grading system.