Korean students studying in the United States are rushing back to Korea this summer. They are not back home to enjoy the summer holidays, but to enroll at hagwon, cram schools that help them to prepare for various standardized tests such as GRE, GMAT and LSAT and even CPA.
“There’s nothing like the Korean hagwon that can help students to earn high test scores in a relatively short period of time,” JoongAng Ilbo said on Saturday.
The Korean hagwon especially has a good reputation for preparing students for the math part of the GMAT, it said.
These hagwon are cheaper, compared to their U.S. counterpart. For example, Kaplan, a U.S.-based test preparation institution, charges $1,300 for 14 lectures in Los Angeles, while it costs $1,200 for 32 lectures at a hagwon in Seoul, making an economic sense for these students to return to Korea for the summer.
For them, staying here also costs little. Their family members or relatives live in Seoul. That means they don’t have to spend a large sum of money for lodging.
Because of the Korean hagwons’ reputation for test preparations, now many of them offer online courses for those who cannot return to Korea during the summer, it said.