Local private schools started admitting students and hosting admission talks this month. Last week, Diocesan Boys’ School (DBS), one of the most prestigious schools in Hong Kong, hosted two admission talks that attracted 2,000 parents and students aspired to be part of the family, who came to familiarize themselves with the school and its admission procedures.

Diocesan Boys’School is one of the oldest secondary schools in Hong Kong. In its 145 years of historical establishment, the school has nurtured the city’s most famous-sounding elites.  This renowned private school houses quite a number of talented students that outshine their peers in speech festivals, swimming and athletic competitions. “150 and 10 secondary one places will be respectively reserved for our affiliated school and Diocesan Boys’ School (primary division), and the remaining 86 places will be open to all students,” said Mr Cheng Kay-yan, the headmaster of DBS.  “We expect to receive more than a thousand applications this year. After initial screening, about half of the applicants will be invited to attend an interview next year, in January or February,’said Mr Cho Ka-wai, the panel head of admission and vice-headmaster at DBS. Applicants talented in music and sports will be invited to attend try-outs and auditions.

Diocesan Boys’School admits its students directly. Every year, students throw themselves in a head-to-head contest to compete for a place at DBS. Mr Cho shared with us some interview tips on how to run ahead of the race. He revealed that only individual interviews will be conducted. The interview panel consists of two teachers. They will raise questions in Cantonese and English to examine the student’s ability to communicate bilingually. Both the ability to converse with others and read aloud will be tested. Topics covered are mostly related to students’ daily life, for instance, school life, hobbies and reading habits. Current social issues, say, the Occupy Central movement, are also among the topics covered and students are expected to formulate a response that shows depth and breadth rather than critical judgement. In the read-aloud section, students will most likely be given texts from newspapers, text books or anthologies. Questions will be asked after they have finished reading the texts. To score high, students are advised to mind their punctuation, pauses, and pronunciation when reading the text.

“Language proficiency and the ability to respond will be the major grading criteria,” Mr Cho added, “Before attending the interview; students are suggested to familiarize themselves with the history and values of our school as well.” Students’ number one taboo is to cram model answers and spill them out like they have had them memorized for long. Showing their true personality will suffice in making students shine. He also opposed the idea of sending children to costly interview preparation courses, saying that students should be spared from excessive stress. Trained students, as he observed, are also those who often come off as unnatural in interviews.

Many parents will prepare showy resumes for their children when applying for secondary schools. Mr Cho finds these resumes over-the-top and prefers precise and concise summaries (about 8-10 pages long) to lengthy lists of achievements. Parents are, however, reminded to submit copies of ALL required documents, e.g. birth certificate, examination reports from P.4 to P.6 and sports and music achievement awards. One last reminder from Mr Cho is, recommendation letters or references shall be kept at its minimum, as doing so is far from environmentally-friendly and can incur heavy costs. 

The annual tuition fee of Secondary School Form 1 is HK$43,000.  Mr Cho pointed out that the public has a misconception that this school is a noble school, but actually its initial opening is an orphan school, with the Christianary as its key mission,  so it accepts students without taking their background as one of the consideration, it also offers scholarship, tuition deduction, books and uniform sponsorship etc as a kind of assistance to those poor students, it also offers reasonably cheap lunch box to students, so it definitely benefits for those genius and students with good standard though their family backround is not good. 

Diocesan Boys'School S1 Student Admission File:

Application Deadline:

Open for applications from now till next year admission，deadline is 25 November 2014

Application Form and Required Documentation：

1) Mail：Mail an envelope to apply for the application form

2) Come to School Administration office to collect the application form

3) Downloand from the school website

Application and Selection Procedure：
DBS will not participate in any form of EDB's space allotment, all students will be accepted by DBS and through interviews only。Result to be announced on April 1, 2015。