'September 3' Final Mock Test Before CSAT... Trend of Increasing Repeat Test-Takers Likely to Continue

The final mock test before the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) will be held on September 3.

According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) on the 18th, so-called "killer questions" will also be excluded from this September mock test. KICE stated, "We will exclude questions that favor students who have repeatedly trained in problem-solving techniques through private education. Instead, we will maintain an appropriate level of difficulty so that students who have received a thorough education within the public school curriculum and supplemented their studies with EBS-linked textbooks and lectures can solve the problems."

On the morning of June 4th, the day of the June mock test for the College Scholastic Ability Test, students are receiving answer sheets at Geumcheon High School in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul. 2025.06.04. Photo by Joint Press Corps

The test subjects are divided into Korean, Mathematics, English, Korean History, Inquiry (Social Studies, Science, Vocational), and Second Foreign Language/Chinese Characters.

All test-takers are required to take the Korean History section, while the other sections are optional.

According to the "Basic Plan for the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test" announced by the Ministry of Education in 2023, the "common subject + elective subject" structure will be maintained for the Korean, Mathematics, and Vocational Inquiry sections. The English, Korean History, and Second Foreign Language/Chinese Characters sections will be graded on an absolute scale.

KICE plans to maintain the EBS linkage rate at around 50% of the total number of questions for each subject and section, as previously mentioned in the "2026 CSAT June Mock Test Implementation Plan" released in March. The institute also intends to increase the perceived linkage by utilizing materials such as charts, illustrations, and passages included in the linked textbooks.

The score report will indicate the standard score, percentile rank, and grade (on a 9-level scale) for each subject and section. For the sections graded on an absolute scale?English, Korean History, and Second Foreign Language/Chinese Characters?only the grade (on a 9-level scale) will be provided. If a test-taker does not take the mandatory Korean History section, their test will be invalidated and no score report will be issued.

The registration period is from the 20th of this month to the 2nd of next month. Current students may register at their schools, graduates may register at their alma mater or at a private academy of their choice, and test-takers who do not have an alma mater, such as those who passed the qualification exam, may register at one of the 85 local education offices in their current district or at an eligible private academy.

Meanwhile, the June mock test was evaluated as being at a similar level of difficulty to last year's CSAT. It was analyzed that students who had thoroughly studied the passages, works, and key concepts from the EBS CSAT-linked textbooks were able to solve the problems sufficiently. By subject, Mathematics was generally moderate in difficulty, although some questions required significant time and Calculus was considered burdensome for some students. English was evaluated as being similar to or somewhat easier than last year's CSAT, in which the percentage of students achieving the top grade (Level 1) was 6.22%.

In the June mock test, both the number of third-year high school students born in the Year of the Golden Pig (413,685 students) and repeat test-takers (89,887 students) increased, resulting in a record high of 503,572 total test-takers since the 2011 academic year. This trend may continue in the September mock test. Last year, the number of repeat test-takers increased from 88,698 in the June mock test to 106,559 in the September mock test.