A total of 425,251 students around the country are sitting for the Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) examination beginning today.

They include 394,458 candidates from national secondary schools and 10,949 from private schools registered with the Ministry of Education.

The Bahasa Melayu and Mathematics papers are scheduled for today, the English Language and Science papers for tomorrow, the Living Skills and Islamic Education papers for Wednesday, and several language tests on Thursday.

The PT3 examination was introduced in 2014 to replace the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination.

At various examination centres, students were seen to be engrossed in last-minute revision before entering the examination halls, as parents and teachers gave them words of encouragement.

-- BERNAMA