[2026 CSAT] EBS: "Korean Section Shows High Practical Linkage... 'Reading' More Difficult Than September Mock Exam"

EBS Linkage Rate at 53.3%
Challenging Questions: Reading 8 and 12, Literature 34

The Korean section of the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) maintained the question trends of last year's exam, with a balanced distribution of questions across various difficulty levels. The Korean section consists of common subjects (Reading and Literature) and elective subjects (Speech and Composition, Language and Media).

Compared to the mock exam in September, the 'Reading' part of the common subjects was more difficult, while 'Literature' was somewhat easier, resulting in an overall appropriate level of difficulty. Additionally, materials, works, and core concepts covered in the EBS-linked textbooks were integrated into the test in diverse ways, leading to a high sense of practical linkage among test-takers.

On the morning of the 13th, when the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was held, a test taker was preparing for the exam at the testing site set up at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul. 251113. Photo by Joint Press Corps

At the "2026 CSAT Korean Section Trend Analysis Briefing" held at the Government Complex Sejong on the 13th, Han Byunghoon, a teacher from the EBS field teacher group who analyzed the first period Korean section, commented, "While maintaining the question trends of last year's CSAT, reading passages were included to increase discrimination among students." He explained that the 'Reading' part of the common subjects was likely somewhat challenging. Han analyzed, "Discriminative power was ensured by appropriately placing questions that required students to comprehensively understand the relationships between pieces of information in the reading passages and then judge the answer choices."

Han further evaluated, "In last year's CSAT, high-difficulty questions were distributed evenly across all areas, while in the September mock exam, the difficulty of Reading was low and the difficulty of Literature and elective subjects was high. However, in this year's CSAT, the difficulty of Reading increased." He added, "However, the difficulty of Literature and elective subjects decreased, so the overall difficulty level was appropriate. Comparing last year's CSAT and the September mock exam, this year's CSAT was similar to last year's."

Looking at the main questions, in Reading, Question 8, which asked whether the norms regarding collateral and guarantee contracts presented in the passage could be applied to the situations in the answer choices, and Question 12, which required understanding the meaning and relationships of various concepts related to thermal expansion, were cited as discriminative questions. In particular, Question 12 specifically asked about the relationships between concepts such as the linear thermal expansion coefficient and curvature, as well as maximum displacement and radius of curvature for each answer choice, which is believed to have increased its discriminative power.

In Literature, Question 34, which asked whether the test-taker appropriately appreciated the work based on the content presented in the answer choices, was considered a discriminative item. Han stated, "Because students needed to specifically identify lines from works (A) to (D) that expressed the reality of experience and external objects in various ways based on the content in the answer choices, the perceived difficulty would have varied depending on how thoroughly students engaged with school education."

In Speech and Composition, Question 40, which required identifying how the content of two discourses was reflected in a critical essay, and in Language and Media, Question 36, which asked students to compare 15th-century Korean with modern Korean based on a passage about the relationship between letters and sounds, were considered difficult. However, it was noted that these questions could be solved by students who diligently studied in school.

In his overall assessment, Han stated, "Even without excessive inference, students could judge the answer choices based solely on the information explicitly stated in the passages, so the test was at a level where reading and thinking skills acquired through the school curriculum and textbooks were sufficient for preparation."

In accordance with the principle of linking more than 50% of the content with EBS CSAT-linked textbooks, materials, works, and core concepts covered in these textbooks were once again integrated into the exam in various ways. The overall linkage rate was 53.3%, with a total of 24 questions. In the common subjects (Reading and Literature), Questions 1-3, 5-6, 8, 10-12, 14, 16-17, 18-21, 22-23, 25, 31-32, and 34 were linked questions. In the elective subjects, Questions 40 and 42 in 'Speech and Composition' and Questions 36 and 39 in 'Language and Media' were linked questions.

Han stated, "All four Reading passages and three out of eight Literature works were taken from the EBS CSAT-linked textbooks. The linkage rate with EBS was over 50%, just as in previous years, and it is expected that test-takers would have felt a high level of practical linkage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.