Hong Kong students performed very well in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012, the Education Bureau says, adding their computer-based assessment results rank among the best.
The programme is an international study undertaken every three years that assesses the reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in the mother tongue of 15-year-old students.
Forty-four countries and regions participated in the international computer-based assessment of problem solving, while 32 countries and regions participated in the reading and mathematics computer-based assessment.
Hong Kong students ranked third in reading and fourth in both problem solving and mathematics in the assessment, making their performance in these three areas among the best internationally.
In the computer-based assessment of reading literacy, Hong Kong's ranking progressed from fifth in the PISA 2009 to third in the PISA 2012. The mean score of students in the PISA 2012 was 550, which was significantly higher than that of the previous study in the PISA 2009 (515).
In the assessment of problem solving and mathematical literacy, Hong Kong ranked fourth in the PISA 2012. The students' mean scores in these two assessments in the PISA 2012 were 540 and 550.
