CSAT English scores on `fixed' scale

By Kim Rahn

The Ministry of Education said Thursday that it will adopt an absolute scale for English scores in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), starting from 2017, and discard the relative one.

The plan is part of efforts to relieve excessive competition among students for high scores. Ministry officials said it decided to change the evaluation system for the English section of the CSAT after holding public hearings and conducting surveys of experts, parents, teachers and college admission officers.

“The purpose of the CSAT is to evaluate students’ scholastic ability by assessing whether they have followed the school curricula faithfully,” an official said.

“However, the current evaluation system, which focuses on relative ranks among students, has caused excessive competition to get high scores, resulting in higher spending on private education.”

Under the current system, CSAT test-takers are divided into nine grades according to their scores. Those who get 90 out of 100 full marks may not be given a Grade 1, the top grade, if a large number of students get higher than 90.

But under the new system, those obtaining 90 will get the top grade regardless of how many others have higher scores, if the authorities set the criterion for Grade 1 at 90 and above and that for Grade 2 at 80 to 89.

“Teachers have also offered lectures focused on raising CSAT scores rather than really improving students’ English ability. Also, some CSAT questions have had a high level of difficulty to rank test-takers, causing a financial burden from private education,” the official said.

According to the ministry’s research on private education costs, parents spent 18.6 trillion won in 2013, and 6.3 trillion won of it, or 34 percent, was on English lessons.

The ministry will finalize how many grades to adopt for the English section and how to divide the grades in the latter half of next year.

“Through the change, we hope English education at schools will focus on improving students’ practical English skills,” he said.

However, some raised concerns that teachers and students may reduce time in teaching and learning English, resulting in a general “degrading” of students’ English ability.

A hagwon teacher in Seoul said, “The absolute grading system could mean that students don’t need to study English as much as they do now. Students may have less pressure for high scores, but easy questions may not help colleges distinguish which students have good English abilities and which do not.”

Some also say an easier English test may cause increasing private education for other subjects such as math and Korean literature, which will stick to the relative scale system.

Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union spokesman Ha Byeong-su said, “We expect a side effect of more private education on subjects other than English. The nation should adopt the absolute scale system for all subjects.”