What Are Marking Points? A Guide to DSE Maths Step Marks (M/A)

Many students assume a wrong final answer means zero for the whole question. In fact, HKDSE Maths is marked step by step — that's what "marking points" are. Understand them and you'll recover step marks without solving anything harder.

We took the marking schemes of 247 DSE Maths Paper 1 (Compulsory) questions from 2012–2024 and counted 1049 marking points one by one. The result is counter-intuitive:

M marks vs A marks: half the marks live in the working

The DSE marking scheme awards two main kinds of marks:

• M marks (Method) — for the correct method or setup. Even if you slip on the arithmetic, a correct method earns the M mark.
• A marks (Accuracy) — for the correct result, built on top of the matching M mark.

So "I knew it but miscalculated" is rarely zero — it's usually M earned, A lost. Since M marks are 48% of all marking points in our count, writing out your working always beats writing only the answer. That's not a teacher's platitude; it's the structure counted out of thirteen years of marking schemes.

What the marking points of one question look like

Here's a DSE-style example (our own, not a real exam question):

The marking scheme would award roughly:

The key: even if you factorise wrongly and solve for the wrong roots, as long as the setup method is correct, that M1 is safe. That's why "write the equation first" is a guaranteed floor.

u-1 and pp-1: recurring "free mark" rules

Across the marking schemes we analysed, two deduction rules appear year after year:

• u-1 (unit) — missing or wrong units is typically deducted once across the whole paper (not per question).
• pp-1 (presentation / precision) — wrong decimal places or significant figures is typically deducted once across the whole paper.

These are free marks: they punish carelessness, not lack of ability. Build the habit before the exam — check the required precision, and add units. Marks lost here are the marks you should least afford to lose.

Follow-through (f.t.): a slip in the middle isn't the end

DSE marking schemes include a mechanism that is extremely candidate-friendly, annotated in English as follow through (f.t.):

Meaning: if one step collapses, do not stop or scribble it all out. Push on with the "wrong but reasonable" result — every later method step can still be a mark. Many students give up the entire question the moment they spot an earlier mistake, throwing away follow-through marks they had already earned.

(A related annotation is r.t. / accept, meaning the marker accepts a reasonable approximate answer — so don't panic over a small rounding difference.)

How to secure full step marks

1. Write the equation first, then substitute — method marks land immediately.
2. Show each step on its own line so the marker can find every point (remember: 4.2 per question on average).
3. Don't quit after one slip — carry the "wrong but reasonable" result forward for follow-through marks.
4. Check two things at the end — did you write the unit? Is the precision right? (u-1 / pp-1 are deducted only once, but only for those who check.)

Knowing which step cost you

Checking answers won't reveal which step lost marks. In DSE ScoreCoach, we grade step by step against the real DSE scheme: M1 set up equation +1, A1 substitute & solve +1, lost 1 mark at completing the square — crystal clear. You'll see it wasn't a lack of ability, just a missing line. To decide which topics to shore up first, cross-reference our DSE Maths Topic Map, or use the free Priority & Study Plan Generator to order your revision.

Same ability, marking-point awareness — that gap can be half a grade.

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Data note: the M/A split and marking-point counts above come from this site's statistical aggregation of the marking schemes of 247 DSE Maths Paper 1 questions from 2012–2024 (1049 marking points). This is a statistical analysis for educational research and contains no question or marking-scheme text; the worked example is our own, not a real exam question. The marking scheme is defined solely by the HKEAA.