Skills to prepare for Pre-S1 HKAT
Find the English and maths skills to prepare for the Pre-Secondary One Hong Kong Attainment Test, based on the Hong Kong primary curriculum. This test is taken before entry into Secondary 1.
Pre-S1 HKAT English skills
37 skill groups across 3 topic areasListening
Main ideas, details and meaning in spoken English
Listening
Main ideas, details and meaning in spoken English
Distinguish similar sounds
Hear differences between consonant blends and vowel sounds that can change the meaning of a word.
Use stress and intonation
Notice stressed words and changes in intonation to understand emphasis, approval, doubt or a question.
Identify the main idea
Work out what a spoken text is mainly about rather than relying on a single familiar word.
Locate specific information
Pick out the details needed to answer a question or complete a message from a spoken text.
Follow connections between ideas
Use linking words to understand reasons, contrasts, conditions and the order of events.
Predict what comes next
Use key words and the surrounding context to anticipate how a topic or situation will develop.
Work out meaning from audio and context
Use tone, pace, pauses and contextual clues to understand spoken meaning.
Understand a speaker's intention
Use the language and tone of a speaker to recognise feelings, attitudes and what they want to communicate.
Reading
Vocabulary, information, text structure and meaning
Reading
Vocabulary, information, text structure and meaning
Use word parts to understand vocabulary
Connect a new word with familiar words, prefixes or suffixes to work out its meaning.
Understand vocabulary in context
Use the surrounding sentence, the wider text and visual clues to work out an unfamiliar word or expression.
Find the main idea
Skim a text to understand its overall message and identify the details that support it.
Find specific information
Scan headings, repeated phrases and other text features to locate information needed for a question.
Follow links between sentences
Use pronouns and connecting words to identify what a sentence refers to and how ideas fit together.
Recognise different text types
Use the layout and language of letters, menus, journals and reports to understand how each text works.
Use text features
Use headings, paragraphs, punctuation and emphasis to follow the way information is organised.
Use book and reference features
Find information through a contents page, index, glossary or book blurb.
Understand intention and feelings
Use word choices and other clues to work out attitudes, feelings and the purpose of a text.
Predict and check understanding
Use information already read to predict what follows, then reread to check or correct an interpretation.
Writing
Ideas, organisation, grammar and accurate expression
Writing
Ideas, organisation, grammar and accurate expression
Write for a purpose and audience
Choose what to include and how to express it according to who will read the text and why it is being written.
Plan and sequence ideas
Gather relevant ideas, decide their order and organise them into a clear piece of writing.
Develop paragraphs
Build paragraphs around a main idea, with relevant supporting details.
Link ideas clearly
Use connecting words to show reasons, results, contrasts, time, conditions and sequence.
Use the right format
Use suitable organisation and language for different text types, including emails, journals and procedures.
Structure a story
Include a setting, characters, a problem, events and a resolution in a narrative.
Use nouns and quantity phrases
Choose singular, plural, countable and uncountable nouns appropriately, and use noun phrases for quantities and groups.
Choose and maintain verb tenses
Use present, past, continuous, present perfect and future forms to make the timing of actions clear.
Use modals and instructions
Use modal verbs to express requests, duties, suggestions and possibilities, and imperatives for instructions or warnings.
Use pronouns clearly
Use pronouns to refer to people and things without ambiguity, and relative pronouns to add information.
Choose determiners and quantities
Use articles and quantity expressions appropriately with nouns, including expressions such as a few, a little, enough and too much.
Describe and compare
Choose adjectives and comparative or superlative forms to describe people, objects and situations precisely.
Describe how and when actions happen
Use adverbs to express manner, frequency and time, and question words to ask about reasons or duration.
Use phrasal verbs and infinitives
Choose suitable verb phrases for actions and conditions, and use infinitives in familiar sentence patterns.
Use prepositions accurately
Use suitable prepositions to express location, direction, time and periods of time.
Build clear sentences
Use a range of sentence patterns to state information, ask questions and express ideas clearly.
Use capitals and sentence punctuation
Use capital letters and sentence punctuation to make the boundaries and meaning of sentences clear.
Use commas and apostrophes
Use commas in lists and when addressing people, and apostrophes for possession and contractions.
Revise and proofread
Improve the order of ideas, add relevant details and remove irrelevant ones. Check spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.
Pre-S1 HKAT maths skills
69 skill groups across 5 topic areasNumber
Whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages
Number
Whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages
Read and compare large numbers
Use place value to read, write and order whole numbers, including multi-digit odd and even numbers.
Round numbers and estimate answers
Round large whole numbers to a chosen place and use estimates to check whether an answer is reasonable.
Add and subtract whole numbers
Calculate sums and differences, regrouping when needed, and apply them in problems with several steps.
Multiply whole numbers
Multiply two-digit numbers by two-digit numbers and three-digit numbers by two-digit numbers. Use column methods and check products by estimation.
Divide whole numbers
Divide two- and three-digit numbers by two-digit divisors, keeping track of the quotient and any remainder.
Use divisibility tests
Decide whether a number is divisible by 2, 3, 5 or 10, and recognise odd and even numbers.
Find factors and multiples
List all factors of a positive whole number and generate its multiples. Use the relationship between factors and multiples.
Identify prime and composite numbers
Use factors to distinguish prime and composite numbers up to 100.
Find the HCF and LCM
Find the highest common factor and least common multiple of two numbers by listing or short division.
Use operation order and brackets
Carry out mixed whole-number calculations with brackets. Work with up to five numbers, without nested levels of brackets.
Rearrange calculations efficiently
Use number relationships to change the order or grouping of addition and multiplication, and split a product into easier parts.
Solve problems by finding one unit first
Find the value of one item or share, then use it to calculate the required quantity in whole-number or fraction problems.
Work with equivalent fractions and mixed numbers
Change between mixed numbers and improper fractions, find equivalent fractions and reduce answers to their lowest terms.
Compare fractions
Use common denominators or decimal equivalents to order fractions and compare them with whole numbers.
Add and subtract fractions
Add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with the same or different denominators. For calculations with three unlike denominators, each denominator is at most 12.
Multiply fractions and mixed numbers
Multiply fractions by whole numbers and other fractions. In a product of three fractions, use no more than one mixed number.
Divide with fractions
Use a fraction to represent division and calculate divisions involving fractions, mixed numbers and whole numbers.
Solve mixed fraction calculations
Choose the operations needed in fraction word problems and calculate expressions with three numbers, following operation order.
Read and compare decimals
Use place value through ten-thousandths and compare decimal values, including equivalent whole numbers and fractions.
Add and subtract decimals
Align place values to add and subtract numbers with one or two decimal places, including mixed calculations with whole numbers.
Multiply and divide by powers of ten
Calculate with 10, 100 and 1,000, and with 0.1, 0.01 and 0.001, understanding how the place values change.
Multiply decimals
Multiply decimals and whole numbers using the primary-curriculum limits on digits and decimal places. Round an answer when needed.
Divide decimals
Calculate decimal divided by whole number, whole number divided by decimal, and decimal divided by decimal, within the published digit limits.
Solve mixed decimal calculations
Use operation order in calculations with up to four numbers. Estimate results and round to the nearest tenth or hundredth when needed.
Convert fractions and decimals
Change a fraction into a decimal and a decimal into a fraction. Use the conversion to compare quantities.
Connect percentages, fractions and decimals
Understand a percentage as a quantity out of 100 and change between percentage, fraction and decimal forms.
Find percentages of quantities
Calculate a given percentage of a quantity and find what percentage one quantity is of another.
Calculate a simple percentage increase or decrease
Find the new amount after a stated percentage increase or decrease. Use equations when the original amount is unknown.
Shape and space
Properties, directions, solid shapes and symmetry
Shape and space
Properties, directions, solid shapes and symmetry
Recognise line and angle relationships
Identify parallel and perpendicular lines and distinguish acute, right and obtuse angles in figures.
Classify triangles
Identify scalene, isosceles, equilateral and right-angled triangles. Use the fact that any two sides of a triangle together are longer than the third.
Classify quadrilaterals
Use side and parallel-line properties to identify squares, rectangles, parallelograms, trapeziums and rhombuses, and explain how the categories overlap.
Split and combine shapes
Divide a polygon into smaller polygons and combine smaller polygons to make a new shape.
Use the eight compass directions
Read and use north, south, east, west and the four intermediate directions. Use a compass to determine direction.
Identify parts of a circle
Identify the centre, radius, diameter and circumference. Use the relationship between radius and diameter, and draw circles.
Recognise cross-sections of solids
Compare cross-sections parallel to the base in prisms and cylinders with those in pyramids and cones.
Use faces, edges and vertices
Identify faces, edges and vertices of solid shapes, and recognise cubes and cuboids.
Recognise nets
Recognise and make nets of cubes and cuboids, and recognise nets of cylinders.
Recognise properties of a sphere
Identify the centre of a sphere, recognise that points on its surface are equally far from the centre, and recognise its circular cross-sections.
Find and draw lines of symmetry
Decide whether a flat shape has line symmetry, find its symmetry axes and complete or draw a symmetric shape.
Measures
Units, money, time, perimeter, area, volume and speed
Measures
Units, money, time, perimeter, area, volume and speed
Measure and convert lengths
Choose suitable tools and use millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres to record, compare and convert lengths.
Measure and compare weight
Read measurements in grams and kilograms, compare quantities and change between equivalent units.
Measure and compare capacity
Read scales in litres and millilitres, choose suitable measuring containers and convert between equivalent capacities.
Calculate with Hong Kong money
Recognise Hong Kong coins and notes, combine amounts and use dollars and cents in everyday calculations.
Read clocks and 24-hour time
Read analogue and digital times to the nearest minute and interpret 24-hour time.
Convert time units and find elapsed time
Change between hours and minutes or minutes and seconds. Find a start time, finish time or duration from the other two.
Find perimeters
Calculate the perimeter of squares, rectangles and shapes assembled from them.
Find rectangular areas
Measure areas in square centimetres or square metres and calculate areas of squares, rectangles and shapes made from them.
Find areas of triangles and quadrilaterals
Identify a base and its corresponding height. Find the areas of triangles, parallelograms and trapeziums, and split polygons into simpler shapes.
Find volumes of cubes and cuboids
Use cubic centimetres or cubic metres to measure volume. Calculate volumes of cubes, cuboids and simple solids assembled from them.
Connect volume and capacity
Use the relationships between cubic centimetres, cubic metres, millilitres and litres when working with liquid volumes.
Measure irregular volumes
Find the volume of an irregular solid from the water it displaces in a measuring container or overflow vessel.
Measure and draw angles
Use a protractor to measure and draw angles, including reflex angles, and recognise straight and full-turn angles.
Calculate circumference
Use pi to find the perimeter of circles, semicircles, quarter-circles and shapes made from them. Find radius or diameter from circumference.
Calculate the area of a circle
Use the radius and pi to calculate a circular area, taking pi as 3.14 or 22/7 as appropriate.
Solve speed, distance and time problems
Use metres per second or kilometres per hour to compare speeds and find distance, time or speed from the other two quantities.
Read travel graphs
Interpret a travel graph to understand how distance changes with time and answer questions about a journey.
Data handling
Charts, averages and interpreting data
Data handling
Charts, averages and interpreting data
Read pictograms
Use a pictogram and its key to work out quantities and answer questions about the data.
Read and draw bar charts
Organise data in frequency tables and draw or interpret horizontal and vertical bar charts. Choose a scale and round data appropriately.
Compare data in compound bar charts
Read and construct bar charts showing more than one set of data, using the key and an appropriate scale.
Calculate and use averages
Find the mean of a set of values and solve related problems. Check whether the result is reasonable.
Read and draw line graphs
Construct a line graph from data and interpret changes shown by the graph.
Interpret pie charts
Compare categories and calculate quantities from simple pie-chart information.
Choose an appropriate chart
Choose between a pictogram, bar chart, line graph or pie chart to present a set of data clearly.
Recognise misleading statistics
Explain how the presentation of a chart can influence the impression a reader gets from the data.
Algebra
Expressions, equations and unknown quantities
Algebra
Expressions, equations and unknown quantities
Use letters for unknown numbers
Interpret simple algebraic notation, such as 3x for three times x, using one unknown quantity.
Write expressions from words
Represent a calculation or a relationship between quantities with an expression containing one unknown.
Solve equations with whole numbers
Solve simple one-unknown equations with whole-number coefficients and constants, including equations with multiplication or division.
Solve equations with fractions and decimals
Solve simple equations whose coefficients or constants are fractions, decimals or percentages, including supported bracketed forms.
Use equations to solve word problems
Form an equation to find an unknown length or an original quantity from a fraction or percentage, then check the answer in the situation.