Korean university entrance exam leaves candidates 'disillusioned'

South Korean candidates thought it would be "easier" because it only included textbook knowledge and eliminated "killer questions", but in reality, the university entrance exam was just as tricky as every year.

On November 16, half a million South Koreans took the Suneung, the university entrance exam. This was the first year that the “killer questions” that were highly difficult and used knowledge outside of the textbook were eliminated, leaving many candidates hoping for an “easier” exam.

However, according to a survey by EBS Education Channel, nearly 86% of the total 2,764 responses said this year's exam was "relatively difficult" and "very difficult".

Specifically, in the Korean subject, 64.5% of candidates rated the test as "very difficult" and 23.2% of candidates found it "relatively difficult". In the English subject, 38.2% of respondents said the test was at a high level of difficulty, while the figure for Math was 32.1%.

According to experts and candidates, each exam has about 5 high-level application questions that are as difficult as the "killer questions" of previous years. For example, question 22 of the Math exam requires candidates to find a graph that satisfies the given conditions by examining the sign of the differential coefficient, then calculating the value of the function. Many candidates were stumped, while a Math teacher at a test preparation center spent more than 20 minutes solving this problem.

A day after taking the college entrance exam, students in Daegu check their answers with each other, November 17. Photo: Yonhap

Lim Seong-ho, director of Jongno Academy, one of the largest private educational institutions in South Korea, said that although the test content is only within the textbook curriculum, the questions are becoming more and more complicated.

"Students need to solve a math question in 2-3 minutes, but teachers at the exam preparation center think this is impossible," he said.

Choi Soo-il, head of the Mathematics Innovation Center at No Worry Education, has a similar assessment.

Experts fear that students will continue to go to exam preparation centers for guidance and adaptation to new question formats, contrary to the original goal of the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, at a meeting last weekend, the Council for Organizing this year’s university entrance exams affirmed that the exam content only includes knowledge from textbooks and has a suitable level of difficulty to assess the ability and classify candidates. Those who prepare well for the exam will achieve high results.

"Although the questions are complex, they do not require problem-solving skills that are only taught in private centers," the South Korean Ministry of Education responded to controversy over the difficulty of the math subject.

Suneung is one of the most rigorous university entrance exams in the world. In 8 hours, candidates must take a test on knowledge of Korean, Math, English, Korean history, a second foreign language or Chinese characters, etc. In previous years, the difficulty of the exam came from the "killer questions", which usually only appeared in Math and Korean. The "killer questions" often had a low correct answer rate (5 - 10%), in order to find the top students when applying to universities.

This year, at the request of the president, these questions were removed. The goal is to help students reduce the pressure of exams, and parents do not need to spend a lot of money on extra classes for their children.

50% of the test content is produced by teachers from EBS, the national educational television channel. The exam board also tries to eliminate questions that require a high level of knowledge or contain many variables to ensure that candidates have enough time to complete the test.

Phuong Anh (According to Korea Herald )

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