Govt to reform state-run college admission test

By Kang Shin-who

College hopefuls will be able to apply for the state-run college admission test twice annually starting from 2014. Currently, the government runs the test only once a year and colleges put great weight on the test scores when admitting students.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Thursday it plans to bring a variety of changes in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in an effort to ease the study burden on high school students and to cut down on private education costs.

An outsourced “committee for the advanced admissions system” proposed to the ministry to conduct the CSAT twice a year and reduce subjects on the test by half. If the tentative plan is confirmed after public hearings, current senior middle school students will benefit from the changes.

Tests of Korean language and literature, math and English will be divided into two types, according to their difficulty level. Students will be able to choose advanced or normal depending on the colleges or majors they are applying for.

In the meantime, the committee is considering excluding other foreign language tests such as Chinese, Japanese and French. The final version of the test reform plans will be announced at the end of October after listening to opinions from parents and education experts.

The test was introduced in 1994 and has been reformed in accordance with the government’s education policy. The current Lee Myung-bak administration is encouraging colleges to put less emphasis on test scores and rather focus on the talent and potential of the student.

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