[2023 CSAT] Retakers Surpass 30%... Will This Year Also Be a Difficult Suneung?

2023 College Scholastic Ability Test Chief Examiner "Ensuring Appropriate Difficulty"
"Increased Perceived EBS Linkage Amid Last Year's Difficult Test Controversy"
"Difficulty Weight Calculated Based on Repeat Test Takers and Performance Levels"
Evaluation Institute Director "No Problem with Overall Difficulty in Questions Differentiating Top Grades"
Ongoing Controversy Over Elective Subject Advantages... Increased Enrollment in Eonmae and Calculus

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The 2022 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was the first integrated CSAT without distinction between humanities and sciences, and it was evaluated that all subjects?Korean, English, and Mathematics?were difficult. As it enters the second year of the integrated CSAT, there is interest in whether the ‘bul-sunung’ (extremely difficult test) will be repeated this year. The fact that the proportion of repeat test-takers has exceeded 30% is also a factor affecting the difficulty level.

At the 2023 CSAT question direction briefing held on the 17th at the Government Complex Sejong, Park Yun-bong, the CSAT question committee chairman (professor of chemistry at Chungnam National University), said, "Since last year, the EBS linkage ratio has been reduced, and we believe that this has had a significant impact on the difficulty of the CSAT. This year, we made efforts to increase the perceived linkage." He added, "Although we do not use the exact same passages as in the EBS textbooks, we created questions with similar topics and content to make them more accessible." Since last year, the linkage method for English questions has changed to ‘indirect linkage.’

Regarding this year’s CSAT difficulty, Chairman Park said, "It is something that should be judged after the exam is conducted," but added, "We believe that an appropriate difficulty level has been secured."

The number of test-takers this year (508,030) slightly decreased compared to last year, but the proportion of graduates and GED holders exceeded 30%. The proportion of graduates and others is 31.1%, higher than last year’s 29.2%, marking the highest since the 1997 academic year. During the September mock exam, the proportion of repeat test-takers exceeded 20.3%, and 10 percentage points more repeat test-takers took the actual CSAT. The increase in repeat test-takers also lowers the possibility of a ‘mul-sunung’ (easy test). This is because the perceived difficulty for examinees varies depending on the difficulty of the ‘killer questions’ that distinguish top-tier students.

Chairman Park said, "We calculate difficulty weighting according to the proportion of graduates based on figures that appear during the analysis of the June and September mock exams." Lee Gyu-min, director of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, explained, "We evaluate the proportion and performance of repeat test-takers during the mock exams. We estimate the overall level of the test-taking group according to the proportion of repeat test-takers in the CSAT and create questions accordingly."

Director Lee said, "Differences in the proportion of top grades arise from a few questions that separate the first grade, but I do not see a significant problem with the overall difficulty," adding, "Nevertheless, we are adjusting the difficulty as much as possible." The structure is such that the higher the difficulty, the higher the maximum standard score. In last year’s CSAT, the highest standard score for Korean (149 points) was the second highest ever, and Mathematics (147 points) was 10 points higher than the previous year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Since the integrated CSAT was implemented, controversy over ‘advantages and disadvantages’ due to score differences by elective subjects in Korean and Mathematics has continued. Even if the raw scores for common and elective subjects are the same, the final standard scores differ depending on the elective subject, causing examinees to flock to subjects with higher maximum standard scores. Changes in the proportion of elective subject test-takers have also appeared compared to last year.

This year, 65.9% of CSAT Korean test-takers chose ‘Speech and Writing,’ and 34.1% chose ‘Language and Media.’ The proportion of those choosing Language and Media increased by 4.7 percentage points compared to last year. Among Mathematics test-takers, 50.0% chose ‘Probability and Statistics,’ 43.7% chose ‘Calculus,’ and 6.3% chose ‘Geometry.’ The proportion of Calculus test-takers increased by 5.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, while Geometry decreased by 2.3 percentage points. The proportion of Probability and Statistics test-takers, mainly humanities students, decreased by 3.2 percentage points.

Especially this year, the proportion of regular admissions at major universities in Seoul increased, and the discriminative power of the CSAT became more important among top-tier students. The regular admission rate at Seoul universities rose to 39.0%, up 1.3 percentage points from last year. Changes in elective subject test-taking ratios have made predicting admission chances more difficult.

Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, said, "The difficulty of the Korean section in the June and September mock exams was irregular, and if the actual test is more difficult than September’s, it could cause great confusion among examinees." He added, "Mathematics was relatively evenly difficult, and managing time on medium-difficulty questions will be a key factor."

Lee Man-gi, director of Uway Education Evaluation Research Institute, advised, "In the Korean section, if you chose Speech and Writing, and in Mathematics, Probability and Statistics, even if you have the same raw score, you are at a disadvantage in the final grade. Therefore, for examinees who chose these subjects and are applying to early admission with minimum CSAT score requirements, accurate provisional scoring and grade prediction are important."