Three candidates achieved six As in the 2009 Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination. The Examinations & Assessment Authority will announce the results tomorrow.

A total of 38,647 candidates took this year's examination, up 1% on last year, and 74.9% attempted the exam for the first time and 22.9% entered as private candidates. The number of day school students attaining the minimum requirement for admission to tertiary institutions grew from 16,853 to 16,988.

Twelve people achieved five As and 307 got three or more As. Seven candidates with special educational needs achieved outstanding results, with one getting three As.

The percentage of A-grades with respect to the total number of subjects sat remained stable at 2.6%. The total number of As awarded was 4,268.

The result of AS-level Chinese language was comparable to last year, with 2.4% of day-school first-attempters attaining A and 94.7% getting E or above. Same as last year, 0.9% of day-school first-attempters attained A in AS-level Use of English while 76.4% received E or above, up 2.1%.

Four candidates were found cheating during the examination. One was disqualified from the whole examination while the other three were disqualified from the subjects concerned.

School candidates can obtain their results from their schools, while private candidates will be notified by post. The results of private and evening school candidates will be available on the authority's website from 8am and registered users for the SMS service will receive their results through mobile phones by 9.30am. Those who do not receive their results tomorrow should contact the authority on 3628 8860.