September mock college exam tougher in Korean than June test, accelerating ‘social studies rush’

South Korea’s September mock college entrance exam delivered a harder Korean-language test than the assessment held in June, teachers said. They judged its difficulty similar to last year’s September mock exam and national college entrance exam.

Han Byung-hoon, a teacher at Yesan Girls’ High School in South Chungcheong Province, gave the assessment at a briefing on the exam’s Korean-language questions held at the government complex in Sejong. The highest standard score in Korean was 147 on last year’s national exam, compared with 132 on this year’s June mock test. Standard scores convert raw marks according to subject difficulty, and they rise when an exam proves harder.

Standard scores in the mid-to-high 140s for Korean and mathematics generally indicate a difficult test. Mathematics in this year’s September assessment was judged similar in difficulty to last year’s national exam.

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It was harder than this year’s June mock assessment and similar in difficulty to last year’s September mock assessment and national exam.

Nam Chi-yeol, a teacher at Baekseok High School in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, said the exams had maintained a consistent level of difficulty across last September’s mock test, last year’s national exam, this year’s June assessment and the latest test.

The exam also showed a further rise in the “social studies rush,” a term for science-track students choosing social studies subjects because they carry a relatively lighter study burden. Social studies made up 67.6% of all registrations for inquiry subjects, compared with 60.7% last year.

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Looking at last September’s mock assessment and national exam, this year’s June mock assessment and this test, the difficulty has remained consistent.