Is CSAT obsolete? Calls grow for overhaul after test difficulty uproar

Test takers wait for the start of the College Scholastic Aptitude Test at Kyungbock High School in Seoul, Nov. 13. Joint Press Corps

Korea’s all-important annual college entrance test, widely known as the CSAT, is facing an unprecedented crisis as furor over this year’s difficulty and alleged question flaws fuels calls not just for drastic reform but even for its abolition. Long treated as the arbiter of academic success, the exam is now under intense scrutiny over whether it still has a place in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

In an open letter sent to President Lee Jae Myung last week, 15 senior educators, including Park Do-soon, one of the CSAT architects, called for the abolition of the test. They criticized what they called a “lineup” test that, in their view, focuses on ranking students instead of educating them.

“While the government talks of making Korea a top-three AI power, schools remain locked in 20th century rote learning and multiple-choice drills,” they said in a joint statement. “We must abolish the current system of ranking students through the CSAT and multiple-choice evaluations. It’s time to make a significant shift in education ― one that helps our children develop critical thinking, form their own values and perspectives, and grow into democratic citizens with warm hearts and clear minds.”

This year’s CSAT has emerged as a major flashpoint. Exam officials insisted there were no faulty questions, but students and professors have challenged the claim. For example, a humanities professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology said that Question 17 in the Korean section had no correct answer at all, while Question 24 in the English section drew more than 300 formal complaints from test-takers. This eventually forced Oh Seung-geol to step down as president of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, the state organization that creates and administers the test.

The controversy spread overseas, with English-language news media outlets such as the BBC highlighting the “insane” difficulty of the English section. At issue is not just its toughness, but whether the test is practical and whether it reflects the official curriculum that students are supposed to be tested on. Many critics say the CSAT fails on both fronts.

Rep. Baek Seung-ah of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and civic group World Without Private Education Worries analyzed the CSAT English section and concluded that about 40 percent of the 28 reading questions exceeded even the highest difficulty level found in four major high school English textbooks.

“In terms of overall difficulty, the proportion of reading passages and the vocabulary used, it goes beyond the level of the English II textbook, which is supposed to define the scope of the exam,” the group said on Thursday.

Some critics say the problems go far deeper than a few bad questions. In an AI-driven era, a test built on multiple-choice items with a single right answer is increasingly seen as out of step with what’s required to be successful in today’s world. They say an exam obsessed with picking one correct option under time pressure cannot foster the creativity and higher-order problem-solving skills needed in the future.

In a striking move, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Jung Keun-sik held a press conference on Dec. 10 to propose a phased exit from the CSAT.

Jung proposed scrapping the CSAT entirely by the 2040 academic year. In a road map for reform, he said, all individual school tests and the CSAT would have to convert to absolute evaluation by 2033, while expanding written and essay-style assessments. Following the abolition of the CSAT, a school record-centered admissions system would be in place, and universities would gain greater autonomy to select students through interviews and other assessments, he added.

Jung said that dramatic reform is inevitable, given the demographic situation. According to data from Statistics Korea and the Korean Council for University Education, a consultative group that consists of universities across the country, the number of 18‑year‑old students who are potential university entrants this year dropped to some 456,000, from more than 820,000 in 2000. This figure is projected to continue to fall to nearly 260,000 by 2040.