Expert criticizes Korea's college entrance exam for being too difficult

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, December 9, 2023 | 16:56

Society

Expert criticizes Korea's college entrance exam for being too difficult

Posted : 2021-12-14 16:45

Updated : 2021-12-14 16:55

In this screenshot from a video on the YouTube channel of Josh, "the Korean Englishman," a British high school student tries to solve a question from the English part of Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test.

By Yoon Ja-young

An education expert who previously administered the country's annual college entrance exam said that that test should be scrapped, as it now only has excessively tricky questions that go beyond what's taught in high school classes.

Reform 'Suneung'

2021-11-27 14:44 | Parchment Made of Sheepskins

In an interview with daily newspaper The Kyunghyang Shinmun, Sung Ki-sun, a professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the Catholic University of Korea, criticized the "Suneung," or the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). He served as the chief of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, which is in charge of the test, from 2017 until this February.

He pointed out that the CSAT is in dilemma. If it is too easy, too many students get perfect scores, which result in a loss for the top students, as they will get the same score as those who are not as good as them. It thus includes some very tricky questions, but then, these are virtually impossible for high school students to solve unless they received special training through private education, going beyond what's offered in high school classrooms.

It is not the first time the Suneung has been criticized. On a number of occasions, videos of native English speakers trying to solve the test's English section have gone viral. Most recently, YouTuber Josh "the Korean Englishman" tried to have British high school students take the English part of the test. They said that some passages don't seem to make any sense to them and that the questions made them rethink whether they "know English or not." One of the students said, "It's done in a way where every answer could be the answer." At hagwons, or private cram schools, students are thus given tips to find clues to figure out the correct answers as quickly as possible.

Sung said that, under the current system, half of the students end up sleeping in high school classrooms as they cannot catch up once they fall out of step with the curriculum. He suggested that the Suneung should be replaced with one that evaluates whether the test-takers are qualified to get high school diplomas, while introducing a new test tailored for top students and schools.

yjy@koreatimes.co.kr