Absolute Evaluation in English Section "Similar to Last Year... Reflecting Recent Social Changes"

Some Discriminative Questions Also Included
No Consideration of Adjusting Number of Candidates Between Grades During Exam Creation

On the morning of the 3rd, when the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test was held, examinees at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul, were heading to the exam rooms after undergoing temperature checks.

Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), this exam, delayed by two weeks, was taken simultaneously at 1,383 exam sites across 86 test districts nationwide, with a record low of 493,433 candidates participating. / Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee, Trainee Reporter Seungseop Song] In the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test held on the 3rd, the English section was evaluated to be at a similar level to last year's test. The overall problem composition appears to be almost identical to the June and September mock exams.

Yoo Seong-ho, a college entrance counseling teacher from the Korea Council for University Education (KCUE) and a teacher at Seoul Soongdeok Girls' High School, who analyzed the English section, said, "English passages recently focused on social changes, especially practical passages, so it was probably not difficult even for mid-level students." He added, "By using passages about bicycle-sharing service issues or remote and online classes, students likely approached the problems without boredom and solved them."

Jeon Ki-hong, a teacher at Gyeongbuk Muhak High School, said, "Question 33 about neuroscience contained unfamiliar vocabulary, so students might have had difficulty inferring the correct answer," and analyzed, "The question dealing with the concept of copyright in an abstract way could differentiate upper-middle-level students."

Regarding the English section, which is graded on an absolute evaluation basis, Min Chan-hong, the chair of the CSAT test committee and a professor at Hanyang University, stated, "There was no particular effort to adjust the number of students between grades."