Busan Office of Education: 27,356 Applicants for This Year's College Scholastic Ability Test in Busan

Application Deadline Results: 616 More Applicants Compared to Last Year

The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education (Superintendent Ha Yunsoo) announced on the 13th that, as a result of accepting applications for the 2025 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) from August 22 to September 6, the number of applicants in Busan increased by 616 (2.3%) compared to last year, totaling 27,356.

Among the applicants, the number of expected graduates was 18,158, an increase of 360 (2.0%) from last year. The number of graduates was 7,976, up by 121 (1.5%), and the number of those who passed the qualification exam was 1,222, an increase of 135 (12.4%).

The Korean and Mathematics sections of the 2025 CSAT will be conducted with a "common subject + elective subject" structure. Among the Korean section applicants, 17,636 (64.5%) chose the elective subject "Speech and Composition," and 9,546 (34.9%) chose "Language and Media."

In the Mathematics section, 11,316 (41.4%) applicants chose "Probability and Statistics," 13,926 (50.9%) chose "Calculus," and 819 (3.0%) chose "Geometry."

For the Inquiry section, applicants can choose up to two subjects regardless of academic track. Those who selected only social studies subjects numbered 13,500 (49.3%), those who selected only science subjects numbered 11,476 (42.0%), and those who combined both sections were 1,715 (6.3%). It appears that most examinees applied for two subjects.

Regarding the main elective subjects in the Inquiry section, for social studies, the most popular choices were Life and Ethics, Society and Culture, Ethics and Thought, and Korean Geography, in that order. For science, the most chosen subjects were Biology I, Earth Science I, Chemistry I, and Physics I, in that order.

In the vocational inquiry section, the number of applicants decreased by 46 (34.6%) compared to last year, with 87 applicants. For the second foreign language, there were 3,661 applicants, an increase of 746 (25.6%) compared to last year's 2,915.

The Busan Office of Education plans to begin full-scale CSAT operations, such as assigning test sites and candidate numbers, for applicants starting in mid-September once the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation finalizes the list of test-takers.