By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
College hopefuls will receive test results on Dec. 12, five days earlier than the scheduled date.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development Thursday announced it will deliver the results of state-run College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) on Dec. 12 instead of Dec. 17.
The CSAT score is a crucial factor for most universities when recruiting students, although schools differ in how they reflect the scores as an entrance assessment of the applicants.
The education authority had released total test scores of test takers until last year, but from this year, it will only give one of nine grades for each hopeful. The decision was made after college hopefuls failed to enter their favored universities due to their scores being slightly not high enough.
Education Minister Kim Shin-il warned universities ignoring the ministry's change on the test scores will face disadvantages. ``We will take proper action against universities that put more weight on CSAT scores and stick to the old evaluation system,'' he said.
``As this is the first year we changed the test evaluation method, we were afraid those changes could puzzle students, their parents and teachers,'' Kim said. ``We will minimize possible confusion by announcing the test results earlier.''
In addition, the ministry plans to help teachers and students choose proper universities with college admission information from education offices of cities and provinces nationwide.