This article reports a case study of students attending a fee-paying private tutorial school in Hong Kong in 2009-2010. They were retaking the Year 11 English language public examination, attempting to improve grades obtained in 2008-2009. The mainly qualitative study extends an earlier quantitative study (Coniam Recent developments in English language education and assessment: Hong Kong and mainland China. Springer, New York, in press) that investigated improvements in examination retake results by a sample of 200 students. Via a purposive sample of 17 semi-structured interviews with participants from the previous study, taught by the same teacher, the current study investigates the educational and assessment perspectives of student examination re-takers. Respondents were positive about various aspects of their tutorial school and commented favourably on their experiences compared with those at previously attended government-supported schools. They were positive about the greater freedom experienced in the tutorial school over non-compulsory attendance and flexible lesson scheduling. In addition, they valued the examination-oriented teaching in the tutorial school. Contradictorily, however, overall, students appear to prefer to study at a government-supported school.