Elite Schools Guard Against Exam Leaks
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Six elite schools in Seoul are now on high alert after the entrance exam leak, which occurred at Gimpo Foreign Language High School last month in Gyeoggi Province. The schools write an admission test Friday.
In order to prevent possible exam leaks to cram schools, the six foreign language schools have decided to keep exam questions up to the level of middle school curricula _ not higher.
High-level questions above the middle school level have been seen in the school admission tests to date. To prepare their students with the difficult questions, many cram schools have given them so-called must-check, or spot questions.
``Entrance exams for foreign language schools should be easier as we set the questions within the middle school curricula. There is no other way to prevent admission corruption,'' said a source from Seoul Foreign Language High School.
In addition, security of admission test papers will be reinforced.
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will monitor exam takers and they will be completely cut off from any outside contact until the exam ends to prevent any possible leakage of test questions. Police cars with sirens blaring will deliver the test papers to the schools.
Last month, Gimpo Foreign Language High School suffered an exam leak scandal when a cram school principal received test papers from the admission director of the school and distributed the questions to students.
Earlier in an interview with a local media, a lecturer of a famous cram school in Seoul revealed entrance exams of seven elite schools have been leaked to cram schools for more than five years.
Foreign language high schools were established to foster excellent students who have talent in foreign languages, but the schools have been turned into institutions for prepping graduates to enter prestigious universities in other subjects and many parents are eager to send their children to those schools.