Star lecturers charged over illegal college entrance exam question deals

Hyun Woo-jin, a private math instructor for the College Scholastic Ability Test / Captured from the YouTube channel Psick Univ

Prosecutors indicted 46 people Monday on charges of illegally trading questions tied to Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), or Suneung, including officials from private tuition companies and teachers.

Those charged include prominent private CSAT instructors, math teacher Hyun Woo-jin and English teacher Cho Jung-sik.

The two are accused of purchasing test questions from teachers who either wrote textbooks for Korea's public broadcaster, the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), or previously served as CSAT mock exam writers, which are state-run practice tests held six times a year.

Prosecutors allege Hyun paid about 400 million won ($276,900) to three teachers between 2020 and 2023 to write and provide test questions.

Cho is accused of paying 80 million won over the same period to obtain questions from teachers and other individuals, and of seeking advance access to questions before EBS textbooks were published.

Since 2004, CSAT questions have been closely tied to EBS textbooks as a measure to curb private education costs. This year, 50 percent of the exam questions were directly linked to the textbooks.

In 2023, police launched an investigation after receiving information that teachers were selling test questions to private education firms. In April, they referred 100 people to prosecutors, including 72 teachers and 11 private instructors.

Cho Jung-sik, a private English instructor for the College Scholastic Ability Test / Captured from the YouTube channel Megastudy

In an April report, police said some teachers formed a team led by a former CSAT reviewer. The team, which included eight teachers with experience as CSAT exam setters or reviewers, supervised a separate group of part-time university students who were tasked with checking the questions.

Police said the group produced 2,946 questions and sold them for about 620 million won.

Cho previously faced allegations of question trading after Question 23 on the English section of the 2023 CSAT closely resembled a problem from his private study materials. Police found that Cho had purchased the question and referred those involved in the case to prosecutors.

In Korea, the CSAT is a high-stakes exam taken each November by roughly 500,000 students. Success on the test can determine admission to the country’s most prestigious universities, giving top instructors enormous wealth, influence and a powerful role in shaping students’ academic futures.

Hyun is a case in point, with an estimated annual income in the tens of billions of won and land holdings in Seoul’s Nonhyeon neighborhood valued at about 65.7 billion won.

In June 2022, shares of Megastudy — one of Korea’s largest private tuition companies — fell more than 7 percent after Hyun said he was unlikely to renew his contract. In October that year, the stock rose more than 5 percent after the company disclosed the renewal.

The following year, Hyun criticized then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s order to exclude overly difficult questions from the CSAT, saying that it caused confusion in classrooms. He later faced an unannounced tax audit by the National Tax Service, along with major private tuition companies, including Megastudy.

Cho has also made frequent television appearances, including on programs where prominent instructors offer personalized guidance to students struggling academically.