"Four Challenging Questions Presented... Try Solving Them"
BBC: "CSAT English Notoriously Difficult"
"Like Deciphering Ancient Script"
The New York Times (NYT), a major U.S. daily, has spotlighted the English section of the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in South Korea, which has been dubbed the "killer CSAT" due to its high level of difficulty. The NYT produced and offered the CSAT English questions in the form of an online quiz, allowing readers to try solving them themselves.
On December 13 (local time), the NYT reported that Oh Seunggeol, President of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, had resigned, taking responsibility for the controversy over the difficult English section of the CSAT. The article noted, "Korea's college entrance exam is notoriously tough," and presented four challenging questions, inviting readers to attempt them.
Students preparing to take the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). The Asia Business Daily DB.
The four questions introduced by the NYT were: Question 24, which features the coined term 'culturetainment'; Question 34, dealing with the legal philosophy of German philosopher Immanuel Kant; Question 36, which points out that clocks utilize repetitive natural phenomena; and Question 39, concerning games, avatars, and virtual spaces.
The NYT asked, "Can you get them right?" and set up the questions so that readers could select their answers and compare them with the correct ones afterward.
The NYT also reported that the percentage of test-takers who achieved the highest score in the CSAT English section was about 6% last year, but just over 3% this year. The article continued, "Every year, hundreds of thousands of students take the CSAT over eight hours, a decades-old tradition in Korea," explaining that during the exam, measures such as bans on aircraft takeoffs and landings, suspension of construction, and traffic controls are implemented to help students concentrate.
2026 College Scholastic Ability Test English Section Question 24. Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.
Major British media outlets, including the BBC, The Telegraph, and The Guardian, also presented some of this year's CSAT questions and introduced students' critical opinions. The BBC recently reported, "The English section of Korea's CSAT is notoriously difficult," adding that "some students describe the English section of the CSAT, Korea's college entrance exam, as 'like deciphering ancient script' or at an 'insane' level of difficulty."
The BBC also mentioned Question 34, encouraging readers to try it if they wanted to test themselves. The report added that, regarding this passage, users on the American online community Reddit criticized it as "pretentious wordplay" and "terrible writing."
Meanwhile, Oh Seunggeol, President of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, abruptly resigned on December 10 amid controversy over the failure to adjust the difficulty of the CSAT English section. In particular, Question 24, which was at the center of the controversy, accounted for more than 400 out of the 675 official appeals regarding this year's CSAT. The original author of the passage in question also pointed out that "the test included a word rarely used even by native speakers," further fueling backlash from students and parents.
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