Hong Kong Universities are competing to enroll top mainland students this summer. In their interviews to applicants, university officers place more emphasis on testing students' comprehensive abilities by asking their views on some hot topics in society, such as the Olympics and disaster relief efforts in quake-region.

The Beijing Youth Daily published a commentary written by a Sichuan editor, Zhou Minghua saying that such interviews focus more on students' social knowledge and logical thinking, which are much more important than academic performance alone.
The paper adds that some mainland educational institutions have paid too much attention to exams. This leads students to mechanically memorize information. Therefore, sometimes they do not fully understand the material they are learning. In this way, information is often wrongly used when they need to express their own thoughts.

Meanwhile, mainland students do not have sufficient time and access to develop hobbies, missing the chances to see the bigger picture of learning and life.

The commentary concludes that in this regard, mainland education should turn their focus to quality-oriented teaching and learning, just like their Hong Kong counterparts are doing. Education should add more elements of social science and practice, teaching young people to be responsible and high-quality citizens.