ESF Doubles Its Perfect IB Scorers, With Fourteen Heading to Medicine

Hong Kong's English Schools Foundation has reported that 27 students achieved the maximum IB Diploma score of 45 points in the May 2026 examination session, according to the South China Morning Post, nearly double last year's 15 top scorers. The figure made the ESF the standout contributor to Hong Kong's record year, in which 73 students from 17 schools achieved a perfect score across the territory as a whole.

Of those 27 ESF students, 14 plan to study medicine when they begin university in the autumn. Thirteen of the 14 intend to do so in Hong Kong rather than overseas, with the Chinese University of Hong Kong's medical faculty alone admitting 35 of the city's top scorers this year, nearly half of the total cohort of perfect-score graduates.

The network's performance

The ESF operates seven secondary schools under a government-subsidised model. Across that network, the group average reached 36.4 points for the May 2026 session, matching last year's score but remaining well above the global average of 30.8. King George V School contributed seven perfect scorers; Sha Tin College contributed six. A celebration event was held at Island School, where students described the study habits they credited for their results.

Some students stuck to conventional approaches, with several emphasising consistency across both years of the IB programme. Others were less orthodox. One student described drinking miso soup every morning as part of his exam preparation. Another used a basic Nokia handset throughout the exam period to avoid social media. "It really helped me lock in," he told the Post.

A city outperforming its size

This year's results reinforce Hong Kong's unusual position in the global IB landscape. The 2,912 Hong Kong candidates who sat the May 2026 session represent a modest share of the 209,607 who registered worldwide, yet the territory's average of 37.02 points, up from 36.72 a year earlier, places it well above virtually every comparable jurisdiction. The year-on-year rise in candidate numbers, up 11 percent, suggests the IB continues to grow in popularity among both international and local school populations in the city.

The proportion of top ESF scorers choosing Hong Kong medicine over overseas destinations is a signal worth noting for universities and policymakers alike. CUHK and HKU have in recent years invested heavily in attracting high-scoring local graduates, and this cycle's data suggests that effort is bearing fruit. Whether the spike in ESF perfect scores represents a durable upward shift or a statistical peak will become clearer when the 2027 session results are released.