HKDSE School-Based Assessment (SBA) Complete Guide 2026

Q: How much should you actually worry about SBA?

For school candidates, SBA is best treated as steady, bankable marks. Because the rank order you earn is locked in by your teachers and preserved through moderation, consistent, careful coursework throughout S5 and S6 is one of the safest investments in your final grade. Do not treat SBA tasks as throwaway homework — a poor lab report or a half-hearted oral can cost a sub-grade that you then have

Most candidates focus their energy on the written papers and forget that, for a number of subjects, part of their final HKDSE grade is decided long before they walk into the exam hall. That part is School-Based Assessment (SBA) — coursework marked by your own teachers during Secondary 5 and 6, then statistically moderated by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA).

SBA is one of the most misunderstood elements of the DSE, especially for private candidates and overseas applicants who often have no idea whether it applies to them. This guide explains exactly what SBA is, which subjects use it, how it is scored and moderated, and what your options are if you sit the exam as a private candidate.

What is School-Based Assessment?

SBA is assessment of student performance conducted by schools, as part of the teaching and learning process, and counted toward the public examination result. Instead of judging a candidate solely on a few hours of written exams, SBA captures skills that a one-off paper cannot measure well — practical laboratory technique, sustained reading, oral communication, project work and creative production.

The HKEAA’s stated rationale rests on two principles:

Validity — assessing learning outcomes that written papers cannot capture reliably (for example, a biology student’s ability to actually handle apparatus, or an English student’s spoken fluency over time).
Reliability and positive backwash — spreading assessment across two years reduces the “all-or-nothing” pressure of a single exam and encourages continuous, deeper learning rather than last-minute cramming.

Crucially, SBA is not a separate qualification or a bonus. It is an integrated component of the subject grade. When you receive a Level 5** in Biology, that level already folds in your moderated SBA score alongside your written-paper marks.

Which subjects have an SBA component?

The list of subjects carrying SBA has changed over the years, and several components were suspended or trimmed during the pandemic period. As of the 2026 examination, subjects that typically include an SBA component include:

English Language — a reading/viewing and an interaction component based on texts studied and group discussions.
Chinese Language — assessment of speaking and reading (subject to the arrangements published each year).
Biology, Chemistry, Physics — practical and investigative work in the laboratory.
Combined Science / Integrated Science — practical components mirroring the individual sciences.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) — a project demonstrating problem-solving and implementation.
Visual Arts — a portfolio of studio work and a research portfolio.
Literature in English — written responses and a portfolio of literary appreciation.
Music, Physical Education, Design and Applied Technology, Technology and Living, and several Applied Learning courses — practical and project-based components specific to each subject.

The exact weighting and tasks differ by subject and are revised periodically. Always confirm the figures for your own subject and exam year in the official HKEAA SBA Teachers’ Handbook for that subject. A handbook is published for every SBA subject for each examination year (for example, the 2026 Biology SBA Teachers’ Handbook and the 2026 English Language SBA Teachers’ Handbook).

A useful general rule: SBA usually accounts for roughly 15% to 20% of the total subject mark, with the written papers making up the remainder. For sciences it has historically been around 20% of the subject; for English Language it has been about 15%. These proportions are not universal and have been adjusted in some years, so treat them as orientation, not gospel.

How SBA is conducted

SBA tasks are spread across S5 and S6 and are administered by your school under conditions set out in the subject handbook. The general flow looks like this:

Task design within HKEAA parameters. Schools have some flexibility in designing tasks (for example, which texts an English class reads, or which experiments a science class performs), but the assessment criteria, the number of tasks and the assessment windows are prescribed by the HKEAA.
Assessment by the subject teacher. Your own teachers mark your work using HKEAA-issued assessment criteria and level descriptors. They determine the rank order of students within the school.
Internal standardisation. Where a subject is taught by several teachers, the school standardises marking across classes so that a given standard of work receives a comparable mark regardless of teacher.
Submission of scores. Schools submit SBA scores to the HKEAA in S6, typically before the written examinations.
Sample review. After submission, schools send a prescribed number of samples of student work to district coordinators or assessors appointed by the HKEAA. Samples are usually selected by the HKEAA using a stratified random sampling technique to check that the school applied standards appropriately.

The moderation mechanism — the part candidates worry about most

Because SBA is marked by different teachers in hundreds of different schools, a raw score of, say, 30/40 might represent a much stronger performance in a lenient school than in a strict one. To make scores comparable across the whole cohort, the HKEAA applies statistical moderation.

The key facts every candidate should understand:

Statistical moderation adjusts the school’s overall SBA distribution, not individuals on a case-by-case basis. The HKEAA compares the SBA scores submitted by a school against the public-examination performance of the same group of students. It then adjusts the average and the spread of that school’s raw SBA scores to bring them in line with the cohort.
The rank order set by your school is preserved. This is the single most important point. Moderation may raise or lower the numbers, but if your teacher ranked you third in your cohort, you remain third after moderation. Your relative standing within your school is exactly what your teachers control; the absolute scale is what the HKEAA controls.
Strong written-exam performance protects the whole school’s SBA. Because moderation is anchored to the group’s public-exam results, a cohort that performs well in the written papers tends to have its SBA scores adjusted upward (or trimmed less). This is why working hard on the written papers indirectly defends your SBA score too.
Sample review is a quality check, not the moderation engine. The submitted samples confirm that the school’s standards are defensible; the numerical adjustment itself is statistical.

In practical terms, you cannot “game” SBA moderation, and you should not try. The most rational strategy is to (a) maximise your rank within your school by doing genuinely strong coursework, and (b) perform as well as possible in the written papers, which lifts the moderated ceiling for everyone in your cohort.

SBA and private candidates

This is the section overseas and self-study candidates most need. If you are entering the HKDSE as a private (self-study) candidate rather than through a school, you generally cannot complete the conventional school-based SBA, because there is no school teaching you and no teacher to assess and rank you.

The HKEAA’s standing arrangement for most SBA subjects is that private candidates are exempted from SBA, and their subject grade is determined entirely from the public written/practical examinations, with the marks rescaled to the full subject so that no candidate is penalised for the missing component. In other words, if a subject is normally 80% exam + 20% SBA, a private candidate’s grade is computed from the exam papers scaled to 100%.

What this means for you in practice:

You are not disadvantaged in the final grade scale — the level you receive is on the same scale as school candidates.
You must, however, carry 100% of your grade in the written and practical papers. A school candidate with weak exams can be cushioned slightly by strong coursework; a private candidate has no such cushion. Every mark comes from the exam hall.
Practical-heavy subjects deserve careful thought. For subjects such as the sciences or Visual Arts, the SBA normally rewards hands-on or studio competence. As a private candidate you will be assessed on the written/practical examination components only — make sure you understand precisely which papers you must sit and prepare accordingly.
Arrangements can vary by subject and year. Some subjects have specific alternative provisions. Before you enrol, read the Handbook for Candidates and the relevant subject SBA handbook for your exam year, and if anything is unclear, contact the HKEAA directly rather than relying on second-hand advice.

For a fuller treatment of registering and sitting the exam without a school, see our companion guides on the DSE private-candidate route and exam-day logistics for international candidates.

How much should you actually worry about SBA?

For school candidates, SBA is best treated as steady, bankable marks. Because the rank order you earn is locked in by your teachers and preserved through moderation, consistent, careful coursework throughout S5 and S6 is one of the safest investments in your final grade. Do not treat SBA tasks as throwaway homework — a poor lab report or a half-hearted oral can cost a sub-grade that you then have to claw back under exam pressure.

A few habits that pay off:

Treat every SBA task as a graded assessment from day one of S5. Early tasks count, and they also set your teacher’s impression of your standard.
Master the assessment criteria, not just the topic. Ask your teacher for the level descriptors and target the specific behaviours that move you up a band.
Protect your rank. Since only relative position within your school survives moderation, the goal is to be reliably near the top of your cohort, every task, not occasionally brilliant.
Keep the written papers strong. They anchor the moderation that scales your whole school’s SBA.

For private and overseas candidates, the message is simpler: in most subjects SBA will not apply to you, your grade will come entirely from the examinations, and your preparation should be built around that reality. Confirm the exact arrangement for each subject you register for, and plan for zero coursework cushion.

Key takeaways

SBA is teacher-assessed coursework, integrated into your DSE subject grade — typically around 15–20% of the subject, depending on the subject and year.
It exists in subjects such as English, Chinese, the sciences, ICT, Visual Arts and Literature in English; always confirm the exact weighting and tasks in the official HKEAA subject handbook for your exam year.
Scores are statistically moderated against the cohort’s public-exam performance. Numbers may change; the rank order your school sets does not.
Strong written-exam results protect the moderated SBA of your whole cohort.
Private candidates are generally exempted from SBA, with grades computed entirely from the examinations and rescaled — no penalty in the grade scale, but no coursework cushion either.

SBA rewards consistency over heroics. Whether you are a school candidate building marks task by task, or a private candidate planning around its absence, the right move is the same: understand precisely how it applies to you this exam year, and prepare deliberately rather than discovering the rules on results day.

This guide is for general orientation. SBA arrangements, weightings and private-candidate provisions are set by the HKEAA and revised periodically — always verify the current rules in the official HKEAA SBA Teachers’ Handbook and Handbook for Candidates for your specific subject and examination year.

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