Best of IB bunch are going places

Sophie Hui

All three of Diocesan Boys' School top scorers in this year's International Baccalaureate exam have decided to further their studies overseas.

The trio is among the 23 perfect scorers in Hong Kong who received 45 points this year. The 23 marks 11 fewer than last year.

The top scorers at the boys' school in Mong Kok are Torres Hong Cheuk-wun, Alexander Tsang Hing-lun and Leo Pang Yin-ching.

All three decided to continue their studies in the UK - with Pang and Tsang to study law at the University of Cambridge, while Hong will study economics and philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The trio said their decisions were not related to the political situation in Hong Kong.

The two prospective law students also shared their views on the national security law.

"We haven't seen the long-term impact of the national security law, so for now, I will keep an open mind to observe," Tsang said.

But he believed the law could affect academic freedoms for subjects that focus on current events, while Pang said it would depend on how the law was enforced.

Nine other students in the school scored 44 points, while another nine scored 43 points.

IB program coordinator Charles Wu Kar-lun said DBS had achieved its best-ever overall results, with all 60 IB students obtaining 30 points or more, with this year's average score hitting 41 points.

Apart from the boys' school, two male and two female students at St Paul's Co-educational College also earned perfect marks. The top scorers are Lou Tsz-ching, Christian Suen Chung-man, Christien Wong and Chan Yuet-yee.

Lou and Suen have both received offers from UK universities, where Lou hopes to study management in LSE and Suen plans to study human and political sciences at Cambridge.

For the other two top scorers, Wong plans to go to medical school at either the University of Hong Kong or Chinese University, while Chan hopes to study global business at one of the local universities.

A total of 2,324 Hong Kong students participated in this year's IB exam, with 641 students, which includes the 23 top scorers, getting high marks of over 40 points.

They also achieved an average score of 36.31 points, higher than last year's 35.99 points.