The CRE and BLNST in Hong Kong

The coming Common Recruitment Examination and Basic Law and National Security Law Test (Degree / Professional Grades) (CRE and BLNST) will be held in Hong Kong on 1 June 2024. Candidates will be arranged to sit the examination on one of the above examination dates mainly according to their choice of examination papers.

The application period for the coming CRE and BLNST will be from 23 March to 5 April 2024.  The application details and an on-line application system will be available on our webpage at www.csb.gov.hk/eng/cre.html during the application period.  Applicants may choose to take any of the CRE papers / or the BLNST paper in this examination.  The relevant information, including the advertisement, will be sent to you before the start of the application period for dissemination to your students.

The CRE and BLNST is open to all holders of degree or a qualification meeting the entry requirement on professional qualifications for civil service degree or professional posts.  Students who will have attained a degree in the academic year of 2023-24 or 2024-25 may also apply to take the coming CRE and BLNST.

Please also note that another round of the CRE and BLNST will be held tentatively in late 2024.  For the convenience of those studying or residing outside Hong Kong, this round of examination will also be held in some non-local cities.  The examination is tentatively scheduled for 5 October 2024 in Hong Kong, and 7 December 2024 in non-local cities. 

Joint Recruitment Examination (JRE)

The next JRE for the Administrative Officer, Executive Officer and the relevant grades is tentatively scheduled to be held in Hong Kong and some non-local cities on 7 December 2024. 

Preparatory workshops on CRE & BLNST

In order to help students to familiarize with the CRE/ BLNST format, Career Centre have organized a series of training workshops in late September and early October. The schedule have been uploaded onto the Centre’s website (online enrollment:  https://sa.hkbu.edu.hk/portal/career/enrollment/ , please click ‘Job Search Skills Workshop’ page)

For enquiries related with preparations and trainings, please contact Career Centre via email at bucareer@hkbu.edu.hk or hotline at 3411-7440.

Good luck!

Career Centre

Preparation for CRE/BLNST

In order to help you to familiarize with the CRE/BLNST format, Career Centre will organize a series of mock practice sessions and workshops in September/ October. The schedule will be uploaded onto our website in September. Interested students please register at our enrollment system (https://sa.hkbu.edu.hk/portal/career/enrollment/) You may also visit the CSB website for more information. (https://www.csb.gov.hk/english/recruit/cre/949.html)

Acceptance of Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSEE) results as equivalent to the results of the CRE

According to the announcement from the Civil Services Bureau, please kindly note the following arrangements for accepting the results of HKDSEE as equivalent to the results of the CRE recently promulgated:

(a) ‘Level 5 or above’ and ‘Level 4′ in Chinese Language in HKDSEE are accepted as equivalent to ‘Level 2′ and ‘Level 1′ respectively in the Use of Chinese paper in CRE; and

(b) ‘Level 5 or above’ and ‘Level 4′ in English Language in HKDSEE are accepted as equivalent to ‘Level 2′ and ‘Level 1′ respectively in the Use of English paper in CRE.

Some Useful Tips

Use of Chinese:

• Most of the questions are related to current affairs, reading newspapers will definitely be beneficial.
• Do more practices on Erroneous character (錯別字).

Use of English:

• While working on the comprehension, you should

- Read the questions first, and then the passage. By doing so, you can actively search the information you need, and save you lots of time.- Never confirm your answer until you finish the whole passage.- Highlight important points when you scan the passage.- Try to understand the structure of the passage. Normally, the topic sentence (first sentence of each paragraph) summarizes the paragraph.

• While working on the Error Identification, you should read the sentence carefully; eliminate error of grammar or usage. Never choose an answer that will change the original meaning of the sentence.
• Paragraph improvement tests your knowledge about paragraph cohesion, rather than merely grammatical errors. Common questions involve:

- Redundancy- Lack of details- Ambiguity- Choppy sentences

Aptitude Test:

• Pace yourself. Don’t waste too much time on a single question.
• Read all the answer choices before confirming your answer.
• Whatever questions you are doing, try to eliminate as many as possible.
• As there are different sections in the Aptitude Test, try to finish the ones which you are strong at first, and leave the difficult ones to finish at the end.
• Make a guess rather than leaving it blank when you deal with difficult questions.
• Sometimes you are only asked to give an approximate answer, therefore, do not waste time to figure out the exact answer.
• Keep track on the units, round off numbers when necessary.
• Don’t’ make any assumption when dealing with verbal reasoning; assume what the passage says as universal truth. Concentrate on the structure of the statement instead.

Basic Law National Security Test (BLNST)
The BLNST (for degree/professional grades) is a 30-minute bilingual paper comprising 20 multiple-choice questions. Answering at least 10 out of 20 questions correct will be deemed to have a pass result in the BLNST. The pass result of the BLNST is acceptable for the purpose of applying for all civil service jobs. Candidates who possess a pass result in BLNST will not be arranged to take the BLNST again.

BLNST and Civil Service Recruitment 
All applicants for civil service jobs will be assessed on their knowledge on the Basic Law and the National Security Law. For all civil service recruitment exercises to be advertised on or after 1 July 2022, attaining a pass result in the newly introduced BLNST will be an entry requirement for all civil service jobs.

All candidates for civil service jobs must pass the BLNST in order to be considered for appointment, regardless of whether the candidates have previously taken the Basic Law Test (BLT) (either a BLT centrally conducted by the Civil Service Bureau or a BLT arranged by individual bureaux / departments in their past civil service recruitment exercises) and attained a pass result.

For candidates who have not taken the BLNST or have not attained a pass result in the BLNST at the time of application, they may still apply for the job and arrangements will be made for them to take the BLNST during the recruitment process. Prospective candidates for civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications are also reminded to check the announcement by the Civil Service Bureau of the dates of upcoming BLNSTs should they plan to take the BLNST. The acquisition of a BLNST pass result does not imply that a candidate has fully met the entry requirements of any civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications.

For more details, please visit the CSB website at https://www.csb.gov.hk/english/recruit/basiclaw/1372.html

Please pay attention to the announcements from website of CSB regularly for latest information. General enquiries regarding the CRE and / or BLNST may be directed to the Civil Service Examination Unit by phone at (852) 2537 6429 or by e-mail to csbcseu@csb.gov.hk