TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 467

C6

Academic Aptitute Test (AAT), currently forms part of the SSPA scheme

so that the relative standards of the participating schools can be

determined. The AAT attempts to measure pupils' linguistic and numerical

aptitude: as it is neither a pure attainment test nor a pure intelligence

test (and is not curriculum-bound) it is not really necessary for teachers

to 'drill' pupils or otherwise coach them for the test: such familiarisation

as is required is obtainable from the practice items which are provided

shortly before the live test. The AAT is centrally administered by the

Secondary School Places Allocation Section of the Education Department

and consists of two computer-marked multiple-choice papers, Verbal

Reasoning and Numerical Reasoning. A pupil's individual performance

in the AAT does not directly affect his allocation hence, so long as

9.

a public scaling test is inevitable it is preferred to other types of test.

As a scaling test the AAT indicates the level and range of marks

to be expected from each participating school, and the internal assessments

then have to be raised or lowered, compressed or expanded, to fit that

range. Thus, the AAT is used as a scaling instrument to measure the

relative level of each school. Like the former SSEE the SSPA also bases

allocation on ability but only in terms of five ability bands, with

approximately 20 per cent of all participating pupils in each band. The

bands are produced after an order of merit has been drawn up, and this

is done by scaling school internal assessments, using the AAT as the

instrument.

10.

For secondary school allocation purposes the whole territory

is divided into twenty-four "gchool areas". It is seen as important

that each school area should be served by a balanced mix of different

types of secondary school (technical; government grammar; aided grammar;

private non-profit-making grammar; and private independent grammar) but

since these are unevenly distributed it is necessary for some secondary