Unavailable for over 2 hours... Remote test takers face inconvenience
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education "Will discuss server enhancement and distribution measures"
Admissions industry also concerned about distortion of indicators like elective subject ratios
On the 24th, when the March National Joint Academic Achievement Test was conducted, third-year students at Yeouido Girls' High School in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, were taking the exam. Photo by Joint Press Corps
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The 2022 National Joint Academic Achievement Evaluation online site, held on the 24th, experienced access disruptions for about two hours immediately after the exam began. Remote test-takers who were confirmed COVID-19 cases or had applied for home study faced difficulties in properly taking the exam until the second period.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on the 24th, access issues occurred on the National Joint Academic Achievement Evaluation online system, which started at 8:40 a.m. The system access disruption lasted for about two hours, but as of 11 a.m., the system was restored, allowing access to the site.
A Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education official explained, "Since remote test-takers used the test materials through non-login access, there were various users besides remote test-takers, causing a surge in simultaneous access. This March exam involved all three grades taking the test and was used as meaningful data for the college entrance strategy for 12th graders, resulting in many users."
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education stated that there were no issues for students taking the exam at schools. The official added, "We plan to discuss server enhancement and distribution measures, and test materials are being distributed via secure emails to schools, which then use their respective LMS to distribute them."
When the academic evaluation test materials were provided as a remote class substitute program in April 2020, students also faced difficulties due to heavy traffic on the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and EBS websites.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education official explained, "The 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education collaborate to use the National Joint Academic Achievement Evaluation online system. The system operated smoothly in March 2021, but this year, due to the Omicron variant surge, the number of confirmed cases skyrocketed, causing these issues."
The March academic evaluation is only available to high school students, and the scores of remote test-takers are not included in the aggregate results. The entrance exam industry believes that considering the unexpectedly high number of remote test-takers, the reliability of statistics such as elective subject participation rates may decrease.
Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, said, "The academic evaluation is the first step of this year's entrance exam, but the high number of absentees means many test-takers were not reflected in the score aggregation, which could distort the sample. Participation rates for elective subjects and score differences by subject will remain unclear, making it difficult to judge based solely on the results. It should only be regarded as an adaptation to the formal format."
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