The study contains 5 stages:

Stage 1 — Invitation:　Inviting Schools.
A random sampling of Hong Kong secondary schools is done by IEA (international schools and special schools are excluded).　Invitation letters will be sent to the sampled schools for inviting them to participate in this important international research study.

Stage 2 — Class Listing:　Collecting Class Information from Schools.
A Class Listing Form will be sent to the sampled schools to collect the basic information of ALL the Grade 4 (Primary 4) / Grade 8 (Secondary 2) classes within the school.　The information obtained will then be entered into the software designed by IEA for class sampling.

Stage 3 — Student-Teacher Linkage:　Collecting Student Information of the Sampled Class.
In order to facilitate the arrangement of the testing, documents including Student-Teacher Linkage Form, Date of Testing Form, Declaration Form, etc., will be sent to the sampled schools.　Please complete the forms, and send back to the Centre.　We will use the information obtained to prepare the test materials for the sampled schools.

Stage 4 — Testing:　Conducting the Test.
The Hong Kong Centre for IEA Studies will send the test materials, including the test administration guidelines, achievement booklets, questionnaires, and different types of record sheets, to schools at least 3 days before the testing date.　After completing the test, schools may pack all the used and unused materials back into the box and contact the Centre for collection.

Stage 5 — Report Release:　Disseminating School Report.
Participating countries and regions will submit the data to IEA.　After processing and analyzing the data, IEA will announce the study results and release the international reports officially in 2016.　Then, each sampled school will receive a summary report specific to their school as a reference.