Candidates Do Better in Getting Right Answers Than in Explaining Reasoning Process | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

World Class Tests in Mathematics and Problem Solving administered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have found that Hong Kong students aged 8 to 14 performed better in arriving at the right answers in tests, but less well in explaining each step in the process of calculation.

The difference is particularly significant in the younger age group between 8 and 11. For instance, in the Algebra questions, the average score for the “answers” part was 67, but the average score for the “calculation process” part was 42. Meanwhile, in the Measurement questions, the average score for “answers” was 68 while that for “calculation process” was only 38.

“Hong Kong students are in general well trained in doing examination papers, especially in answering multiple choice questions that do not require the candidate to explain his reasoning process,” said Prof Wong Man-Yu of the HKUST Mathematics Department, who has conducted a detailed analysis on the test results.

Added Prof Edmund Chiang of the same department, “In general, being able to arrive at a correct answer is only part of the learning process. It is equally important that one can understand the topic in a holistic manner and be able to explain clearly the thinking process behind. The latter is particularly important to a person’s lifelong development. However, as the candidates taking part in the World Class Tests are not randomly selected, the analysis results may not necessarily reflect the overall situation in Hong Kong.”

The above results were derived from the Mathematics papers for both the 8 to 11 age group, in which 1,480 students took the test, and the 12 to 14 age group, involving 305 students. As for the Problem Solving papers, a total of 683 and 210 candidates are from the 8 to 11 age group and the 12 to 14 age group respectively.

The World Class Tests

Since the launch of the World Class Tests in 2001 by the British Government’s Department for Education and Skills for assessing and nurturing gifted youngsters, the Tests have become an international benchmark for Mathematics and Problem Solving. The questions in the tests are designed by professors of renowned universities in the UK, USA and Australia.

The Tests were first introduced in Hong Kong in 2004, and since then, nearly 30,000 students from about 400 primary and secondary schools have taken the Tests. In 2008 HKUST was commissioned to promote and administer the Tests in the Asian region.

World Class Tests are organized throughout the world in April and November each year, and the results announced today are of the November 2009 tests conducted at various school test sites in Hong Kong.

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Ross Lai
Tel: 2358 6306 / 9103 2928
Email: rosslai@ust.hk