How a 9-year-old boy scored top marks in Hong Kong’s DSE exams and what’s next
- Bryan Leung only decided to take the tests as a challenge after watching a YouTube tutorial and says he’s in no hurry to skip more grades.
Nine-year-old Bryan Leung Chi-yan never intended to ace part of this year’s university entrance exams in Hong Kong and only ended up taking the tests after watching a YouTube video that challenged him more than his classes did.
Neither is Bryan in any rush to skip any more grades after learning on Wednesday he achieved 5* in the compulsory part of mathematics and 5** in the extended module of algebra and calculus in the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams. Jumping up the grade ladder, he said, made it difficult to find best friends.
Carrying a big smile and energy to match, the boy said he did not know exactly what the exams entailed when he stumbled across a tutorial video for the maths paper on YouTube. But he decided to give the tests a shot anyway.
“It’s for secondary school students, and I’m in primary school, so I wanted to take [the exams] as a challenge,” Leung said.
The biggest obstacle in taking the notoriously tough tests was not the studying but securing his entry as a primary school student.
His father, Manfred Leung Man-kin, said he and his wife had to research how to enrol Bryan with the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. They decided to ask him whether he was first willing to take the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), a British qualification for students aged 14 to 16.
