What are the allocation exams? Primary 5 and Primary 6 allocation and secondary school places timeline
The allocation exams are internal assessment results under the Education Bureau's Secondary School Places Allocation System (secondary school places allocation), not a territory-wide public examination. Primary schools must submit internal assessment results to the Education Bureau in three terms: the second term of Primary 5 and the first and second terms of Primary 6. The allocation exams are a school-based professional arrangement; schools may use term examinations, mid-term tests, quizzes, general tests, coursework and other methods to determine students' internal rankings, and rankings at different schools are not compared directly with one another. The Education Bureau uses the Hong Kong Attainment Test (Secondary 1) results of the school's previous cohorts of students, matched to the rankings of the current cohort, to derive adjusted scores. These are used to compile the territory-wide Rank Order List for secondary schools to refer to when admitting students during the discretionary places stage, and also to divide students into allocation bands, determining the order of priority in the central allocation. The total of subject weightings is 38, with Physical Education accounting for 2; the optimised arrangement takes effect from the second term of Primary 5 in the 2026/27 school year. Schools must consult parents on the school-based assessment mechanism; in special circumstances, the Education Bureau has also announced flexible handling and re-sit arrangements. The Territory-wide System Assessment is not an allocation exam; it does not publish individual students' results and does not affect further education or allocation. Parents should rely on arrangements announced by the Education Bureau and schools.
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- The allocation exams are internal assessments under secondary school places allocation, not a territory-wide public examination.
- Internal assessment results are submitted in three terms: the second term of Primary 5 and the first and second terms of Primary 6.
- Rankings at different schools are not compared directly; the Education Bureau uses adjusted scores to compile the Rank Order List and divide allocation bands.
- The allocation exams are school-based arrangements; assessment methods are decided professionally by schools and parents must be consulted.
- The total of subject weightings is 38; the optimised arrangement takes effect from the second term of Primary 5 in the 2026/27 school year.
- The Territory-wide System Assessment is not an allocation exam, does not publish individual students' results and does not affect further education or allocation; students with special educational needs may receive special arrangements for internal examinations.
Definition of the allocation exams: internal assessment, not a public examination
Many parents hear the term "allocation exams" and assume it is another territory-wide examination. The Education Bureau's explanation states that the "allocation exams" are not a territory-wide public examination; they refer to the internal assessments that primary schools must conduct to determine the rankings of their own students under the Secondary School Places Allocation System (secondary school places allocation). In other words, they are part of internal assessment: results are determined by schools in a school-based manner and then submitted to the Education Bureau under the mechanism.
Precisely because the allocation exams are internal assessments, the questions, format and number of assessments are decided professionally by each school, and there is no territory-wide uniform allocation exam paper. Understanding this helps parents avoid confusing the allocation exams with public examinations, and makes it easier to understand the assessment arrangement notices issued by schools.
The allocation exams and the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) are two different things. Information from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority states that the Territory-wide System Assessment is not an allocation exam, does not publish individual students' results, and therefore absolutely does not affect further education or allocation; its results are also not used for secondary school places allocation. The Territory-wide System Assessment is conducted at the end of the first, second and third key stages of learning, namely Primary 3, Primary 6 and Secondary 3; since 2012, the Primary 6 Territory-wide System Assessment has been conducted every other year, suspended in even-numbered years, and schools may still participate voluntarily in the Primary 6 assessment in suspended years according to school-based needs.
Timeline: three allocation rounds from the second term of Primary 5 to the first and second terms of Primary 6
According to the Education Bureau's explanation, primary schools must submit to the Education Bureau the internal assessment results conducted for students in three terms: the second term of Primary 5 and the first and second terms of Primary 6. These three allocation rounds form the internal results record on which secondary school places allocation is based, so parents generally become concerned about internal performance from the second term of Primary 5. Corresponding to this timeline, what people commonly call the Primary 5 allocation exams and Primary 6 allocation exams refer to the internal assessments arranged by schools within these three terms, not two additional public examinations.
The allocation exams are a school-based professional arrangement. Different schools may use their school-based methods, including term examinations, mid-term tests, quizzes, general tests, coursework or other professional methods, and different numbers of assessments, to determine students' internal rankings fairly and justly. Schools must also consult parents and other stakeholders on the school-based assessment mechanism so that everyone fully understands the assessment methods. Parents should pay attention to the explanations issued by schools about assessment methods rather than assuming that practices are the same across the territory.
Because assessment methods and numbers differ from school to school, when recording their children's internal performance, parents should also note the timing and format of the allocation exams announced by the school, and rely on school notices. Timetables at different schools should not be compared directly. If a school needs to adjust assessment arrangements, it must consult parents on the proposed school-based arrangements and notify parents in a timely manner after obtaining the consent of the incorporated management committee/school management committee; parents can watch for these formal notices.
Flexible arrangements and re-sits in special circumstances
The Education Bureau has also announced flexible arrangements in response to special circumstances (for example, the pandemic). An explanation in August 2020 stated that schools with cross-boundary students could choose to combine the two allocation rounds in the second term of Primary 5 and the first term of Primary 6 into one, reporting only one set of assessment results or rankings for students; schools adopting the flexible arrangement had to notify the Education Bureau of the decision by 20 October 2020, and student results could be submitted by mid-January 2021. Schools could also consider replacing the internal assessment of the second term of Primary 5 with school-based professional assessment, for example by assessing subject scores based on documented assessment information, including referring to students' performance in the first-term examination of Primary 5, past mid-term tests, quizzes, online learning, tests and/or other progressive assessments.
Under that arrangement, schools had to consult parents on the proposed school-based arrangements and notify parents in a timely manner after obtaining the consent of the incorporated management committee/school management committee, in place of the previous assessment methods. The Education Bureau also encouraged schools to plan early and, if the pandemic subsided and where feasible, to conduct examinations or re-sits for students with suitable arrangements during September to early October as far as possible. These are handling measures under specific circumstances; parents should rely on the announcements of the Education Bureau and schools for the relevant year.
After allocation: adjusted scores, the Rank Order List and allocation bands
Internal rankings themselves are not compared directly with other schools. The Education Bureau's explanation states that the internal rankings determined by each school's "allocation exams" are not compared directly with other schools and do not affect other schools. To allow results from different schools to be compared, the Education Bureau matches the Hong Kong Attainment Test (Secondary 1) results of the school's previous cohorts of students to the rankings of the current cohort to derive their adjusted scores. This practice of using the attainment test results of older students as a reference stems from the relationship between previous cohorts' test performance and internal rankings, and is used to estimate the level of the current cohort.
The adjusted scores have two uses. First, they are used to compile a standardised territory-wide Rank Order List for secondary schools to refer to when admitting students during the discretionary places stage; second, they are used to divide students into allocation bands, determining the order of priority in the central allocation. It can therefore be seen that, after adjustment, allocation exam results affect the rank order seen by secondary schools during the discretionary places stage and the order of bands during the central allocation stage.
Parents can understand the process as a timeline: internal assessments are completed and submitted in the second term of Primary 5 and the first and second terms of Primary 6; the Education Bureau calculates adjusted scores based on previous cohorts' attainment test results, then compiles the Rank Order List and divides allocation bands, and then the discretionary places and central allocation stages begin. Specific dates and procedures are announced by the Education Bureau each year, and this article does not speculate.
Subject weightings: total of 38, with Physical Education accounting for 2
The allocation exams are the "internal assessment results" under the Secondary School Places Allocation System. The Education Bureau's questions and answers information states that for "internal assessment results" the total of all subject weightings is 38; the weighting for Physical Education is 2, the same as the weightings for Visual Arts and Music. The optimised subject weightings will take effect from the second term of Primary 5 in the 2026/27 school year; parents should refer to the arrangements applicable to their child's school year.
The Physical Education assessment covers physical fitness, attitude, physical skills and knowledge, abbreviated as F.A.S.K.; physical fitness and physical skills are the main elements, rather than being dominated by sports awards. Physical skills refer to items taught by teachers in general Physical Education lessons, such as athletics, ball games, dance and basic gymnastics. The physical fitness assessment refers to the Hong Kong primary school students' physical fitness norm table provided by the School Physical Fitness Award Scheme, and covers four items: endurance run, sit and reach, one-minute sit-up, and handgrip or inclined pull-up. It is an assessment of general health-related physical fitness, not a requirement for students to reach athlete level.
The information also states that there is no obvious advantage in students participating in multiple sports interests or training classes. Schools should provide students with learning experiences in at least eight different physical activities across four categories of activity, and may use diversified modes such as worksheets, e-assessment, learning journals or group projects to assess the knowledge aspect. Because only a weighting of 2 is allocated to the three subjects of Physical Education, Visual Arts and Music, when arranging study time, parents can understand the weight of each subject in internal rankings according to the weightings announced by the school, and need not put excessive pressure on any single subject.
Difference between the Territory-wide System Assessment and the allocation exams
Parents often confuse the Territory-wide System Assessment with the allocation exams. Information from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority clearly states that the Territory-wide System Assessment is not an allocation exam, does not publish individual students' results, and therefore absolutely does not affect further education or allocation; its results are also not used for secondary school places allocation. The school reports of the Territory-wide System Assessment do not list individual students' results, so they do not affect students' progression to the next year or further education.
The Territory-wide System Assessment is coordinated by the Government. Its purpose is to assess students' basic competency levels in Chinese, English and Mathematics at the end of the first to third key stages of learning. It is a standards-referenced assessment focusing mainly on basic competency levels. The assessment content is designed according to the curriculum documents and basic competency documents for Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics; apart from the speaking assessments in Chinese and English, it is mainly conducted in pen-and-paper form, and each student needs to answer only one of the papers in each subject.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority also states that schools do not need to provide extra drilling to cope with the Territory-wide System Assessment, because basic competency is only part of the curriculum. Territory-wide System Assessment information cannot be used for comparisons between schools or between students. Once parents understand the nature of this assessment, they need not confuse it with the allocation exams for secondary school places allocation.
Students with special educational needs: special arrangements and exemption from scoring
Internal assessments are submitted under the same mechanism, but student diversity also needs to be catered for. The Education Bureau has drawn up the "Special Arrangements for Internal Examinations for Students with Special Educational Needs"; after consulting professional advice, schools may consider arrangements such as discretionary scoring and exemption from scoring.
For parents, the key is to communicate with the school early, understand the special arrangements their child may receive during assessment, and apply according to school procedures. Such arrangements are school-based professional judgments and should not be assumed or compared with other schools; if in doubt, parents should ask the responsible school staff and rely on announcements from the Education Bureau and schools.
How parents can support internal assessment
Once parents understand that the allocation exams are internal assessments, the direction for co-operation becomes clearer: first understand the assessment methods and subject weightings announced by the school, then arrange revision according to the child's progress in internal learning, rather than chasing rumoured "must-test question types". Schools must consult parents on the school-based assessment mechanism, and parents can learn about assessment arrangements through formal channels; if their child has special educational needs, they can also ask the school about special arrangements. Starting from Primary 5, parents can record the allocation exam timeline together with the school's assessment methods, review learning progress each term, and check arrangements against formal school notices to avoid relying on unconfirmed claims.
Internal assessment covers several learning areas. Schools may combine assessments in Chinese, English, Mathematics, General Studies, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education and other subjects in a school-based manner, and calculate internal rankings using weightings; revision plans should therefore cover the whole picture rather than focusing on drilling a single subject. As for whether extra support is needed, first distinguish whether the problem lies in subject foundations or examination habits. Mathematics learning content can be consolidated layer by layer by year; the topics in Primary 5 and Primary 6 are closely related to content such as algebra and geometry from Secondary 1 onwards, so a solid foundation naturally helps with internal assessment. There are different forms of support on the market, such as tutoring centres, private tutoring, home tutoring and online tutoring, each with differences in arrangements; parents should first understand their child's actual needs before deciding whether to seek help, and should not regard extra drilling as necessarily effective.
Finally, a reminder: details of the allocation exams and allocation, including flexible handling of the number of allocation rounds, submission deadlines and the school year in which subject weightings are implemented, are subject to formal announcements by the Education Bureau and schools. This article summarises the key points of existing official explanations and cannot replace the latest announcements for the relevant year.
Frequently asked questions
Are the allocation exams a territory-wide public examination?
No. The Education Bureau states that the "allocation exams" are not a territory-wide public examination; they refer to the internal assessments that primary schools must conduct to determine the rankings of their own students under the Secondary School Places Allocation System (secondary school places allocation).
In which terms do the allocation exams take place?
Primary schools must submit to the Education Bureau the internal assessment results conducted for students in three terms: the second term of Primary 5 and the first and second terms of Primary 6. The specific assessment methods are school-based arrangements, and parents should rely on school explanations.
Are internal rankings compared directly with other schools?
They are not compared directly. The Education Bureau matches the Hong Kong Attainment Test (Secondary 1) results of the school's previous cohorts of students to the rankings of the current cohort to derive adjusted scores, then compiles the territory-wide Rank Order List and divides allocation bands.
What is the total of subject weightings in the allocation exams?
Education Bureau information states that the total of all subject weightings for "internal assessment results" is 38, with Physical Education accounting for 2, the same as Visual Arts and Music; the optimised subject weightings take effect from the second term of Primary 5 in the 2026/27 school year.
Is Physical Education in the allocation exams dominated by sports awards?
No. The Physical Education assessment covers physical fitness, attitude, physical skills and knowledge (F.A.S.K.), with physical fitness and physical skills as the main elements rather than being dominated by sports awards; there is also no obvious advantage in students participating in multiple sports interests or training classes.
Can students with special educational needs receive special arrangements in the allocation exams?
The Education Bureau has drawn up the "Special Arrangements for Internal Examinations for Students with Special Educational Needs"; after consulting professional advice, schools may consider arrangements such as discretionary scoring and exemption from scoring. Parents should communicate with the school early and rely on school announcements.