Competition

(My conversation with JW continued.)

"There would be competition - or an internal conflict - between the two years," the professor of gastroenterology said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"In the past, students with a good result in the HKCEE got admitted via EAS," my friend went on, "Now, the HKCEE is scrapped; students finish with six years of secondary school and get to the preparatory year. In other words, we will not see those smart students in the class that started with the traditional Year-1 in September 2012 -and we have many more students. You know what I mean !?" (For those who are not familiar with our system, EAS stands for Early Admission Scheme.)

"Do you mean, in the future, when we see a doctor, we have to check which year he or she graduates at?" LS, who remained silent in the car, interjected.

"Shouldn't that always be the question already?" I smiled.

"Szeto, you missed the most important point," JW said.

"Eh?" I was puzzled.

"We are admitting 420 new students - and our friends across the harbour would be doing the same!" He explained.