[2023 CSAT] English Difficulty Divided... Easier Than Last Year vs Similar

Teachers' group rates this year's CSAT easier than last year
Admissions industry says "similar" or "harder"
Top grade rate expected around 7%... Differentiation in middle ranks
Killer questions identified as numbers 34, 37, and 39

On the 17th, when the 2023 College Scholastic Ability Test was held, examinees who finished the exam were leaving the test site at Yeouido Girls' High School in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Evaluations of the difficulty level of the English section of the 2023 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) were divided. While the teacher group viewed it as easier than last year, the admissions industry assessed it as similar or more difficult.

On the 17th, Yoon Hee-tae, a teacher at Seoul Yeongdongil High School and a member of the Korea Council for University Education (KCUE) college admissions counseling teacher group who analyzed the 2023 CSAT English section questions, stated, "It was somewhat easier than last year's CSAT but slightly more difficult than the September mock test this year."

Teacher Yoon said, "There were no new question types, and the vocabulary was not particularly difficult, but the length of paragraphs and sentences increased, which likely made it feel difficult for mid-tier students who studied based on the September mock test."

Teacher Group: "No New Question Types, Vocabulary Not Difficult, but Differentiation for Mid-Tier Students"

Last year's CSAT English first-grade rate was 6.25%, and the June mock test first-grade rate was 5.74%, maintaining similar difficulty levels, but the September mock test this year showed a fluctuation with a 15.97% first-grade rate.

Jeon Ki-hong, a teacher at Gyeongbuk Muhak High School, explained, "The September mock test this year was set quite easily, and the June mock test and last year's CSAT had similar difficulty levels, but the first-grade rate is expected to increase compared to those."

Questions with differentiation included question 34, which involved inferring blanks on the topics of climate change and the passage of time, and question 37, which asked about the order of paragraphs regarding the pricing method of lawyer fees.

Teacher Yoon evaluated, "If a lot of time was spent from question 31, where difficult types begin with blank inference, to question 39, which involves inserting given sentences, it would have felt difficult. Question 34 was quite abstract and required advanced inferential skills, and question 37 had unfamiliar vocabulary and topics, making it hard to predict the logical flow of the passage."

Since last year, the method of linking EBS textbooks in the English section changed to 'indirect linkage,' which likely increased students' perceived difficulty. The college admissions counseling teacher group analyzed the EBS linkage rate as 55.1%. Teacher Yoon said, "The perceived linkage rate felt by students was probably low."

Admissions Industry: "Similar to Last Year," "More Difficult than Last Year"

The admissions industry gave evaluations ranging from similar to slightly more difficult. Jongro Academy predicted it was harder than last year's CSAT, especially making it difficult for top-tier students to secure first-grade scores.

The historical first-grade rates for the CSAT are ▲2018: 10.0% ▲2019: 5.3% ▲2020: 7.4% ▲2021: 12.7% ▲2022: 6.2%.

Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, explained, "It was somewhat more difficult than last year's CSAT, which was already challenging, and much harder than the September mock test, making it similar to the June mock test level. Listening questions, which are usually considered easy, might have been difficult, and the length of dialogues from questions 1 and 2 could have caused confusion."

Most evaluations indicated the difficulty was similar to last year. The speed of the listening recordings and the length of dialogues likely increased the perceived difficulty. The admissions industry identified listening question 9, blank inference questions 33 and 34, paragraph order question 37, and sentence insertion question 39 as high-difficulty questions.

The Uway English section analysis team stated, "The difficulty was similar to last year's CSAT. The first-grade rate is around 7%. The listening recording speed was faster than usual, which likely made it feel somewhat difficult and probably affected the subsequent reading comprehension questions."

Woo Yeon-cheol, head of the admissions strategy research institute at JinHakSa, said, "It was similar to or slightly easier than last year's CSAT. Overall sentence and vocabulary difficulty were slightly lowered compared to last year, and there was an intention to make it more difficult than the September mock test."

Mr. Woo added, "Considering that students' overall study volume has decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, this CSAT seems to have been set similarly or slightly easier compared to last year, but it is expected to be somewhat challenging for mid-to-upper tier students."