Korea's college entrance exam faces major change
Kim Sang-gon, the first education minister under the Moon Jae-in administration / Yonhap
New minister vows to ditch grade curve
By Jung Min-ho
Korea’s college entrance exam, which students can take only once a year on the same day at the same time, is not about getting as many answers right in the five-part, multiple-choice test as possible. More precisely, it is about outdoing their peers.
For students, this creates an endless competition, in which they spend long hours in private cram schools for the crucial test that has lasting consequences for their subsequent careers.
Now Kim Sang-gon, the first education minister under the Moon Jae-in administration, vows to shake the system up.
He believes Korea needs to implement an absolute grading system for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). He says the exam, which helped Korea prosper as a developing country, has had its time and now needs a change for the future.
During a parliamentary confirmation hearing last month, Kim said the CSAT should remove the grade curve and give colleges more space to evaluate their aspiring students based on other criteria.
For now, only English and Korean history tests are scored on absolute grading scales.
But Kim did not say specifically whether he plans to adopt an absolute grading system for all subjects.
He said he will collect more opinions before revealing a more detailed plan next month.
Adopting an absolute grading system for the CSAT was one of the key pledges of President Moon, who reckons the current system is failing too many students, especially those who can’t afford private education.
But the policy is already facing opposition from parents, civic groups and people working in the private education industry. They are concerned that a test, in theory, on which everyone can get a perfect score, will only fuel the “education fever” and force students to enroll in more private education to stand out from the crowd.
Opinions are divided among teachers, too. According to a survey by the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, 51.9 percent of elementary, middle and high school teachers say they support adopting an absolute grading system for the CSAT, while 39.7 percent say they are against the idea.