2024 College Entrance Exam Mechanical Pencils Praised Before the Test, Prices Range from a Few Thousand Won to Up to 10,000 Won
The 'Suneung Sharp' pencils provided to examinees of the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) are heating up the secondhand market.
This year, an ivory beige-colored sharp pencil was given to the examinees, and as soon as the color was revealed, it received high praise as "the most beautiful Suneung Sharp pencil ever," attracting significant attention.
From the moment the 2024 CSAT ended on the 16th, active trading began among those wanting to own the most beautiful Suneung Sharp pencil in history. Prices ranged from a few thousand won up to 10,000 won.
Because the color changes every year and the pencils are only provided to examinees, some people collect Suneung Sharp pencils by year due to their rarity. Especially since these writing instruments are used in an important exam, their grip and writing feel are excellent, leading some to seek them out deliberately.
The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), the organization responsible for the CSAT, and other educational authorities do not disclose the color of the sharp pencils in advance to prevent cheating. This is because there is a risk of misuse, such as attaching cameras to pencils of similar colors.
In fact, a large-scale cheating incident was detected during the 2005 CSAT, and from the following year, most writing instruments were designated as prohibited items. Sharp pencils and other writing tools are distributed at the test site on the exam day.
However, there are occasional cases where the color of the Suneung Sharp pencil is leaked online just before the exam.
The color of the Suneung Sharp pencil one year ago was dark olive brown, and two years ago it was ocher.
KICE spent 365.56 million won to purchase 788,120 sharp pencils and 32,300 containers of sharp leads. Each pencil contains five leads.
The winning supplier was selected through a review by the evaluation committee. Companies that scored at least 85% of the perfect score based on product quality (90%) and business status (10%) were shortlisted in the first round, then a final product was chosen by combining technical evaluation (90%) and price evaluation (10%) scores, with the highest overall rating.
The winning suppliers by year are ▲2016?2010 (Yumi Sangsa) ▲2011 (Bareunson) ▲2012?2019 (Yumi Sangsa) ▲2020 (Donga Pencil) ▲2021?2023 (Yumi Sangsa).
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