In this blog post, we will examine the effects of the easy college entrance exam on the overheating of private education based on various statistics and logic.
In Korea, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which is held every November, is on the lips of many people even if they are not candidates. It is said that you cannot even take a plane on the day of the CSAT, so the interest in it is concentrated nationwide. The difficulty level of the CSAT that year is also one of the biggest topics of conversation. The National Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation and the government say that private education is overheating as the difficulty level of the CSAT rises. So, they say they will reduce private education by making the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) easy. I don’t think the easy CSAT has much to do with reducing the overheating of private education.
Before talking about whether the easy CSAT contributes to reducing the overheating of private education, let’s take a look at the survey on why students take private education. According to the National Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, 70.7% of students received private education. The main reasons for private education in Korea were “school classes are not enough” (31.9%), “the university you graduated from is important for employment” (29%), and “selecting students based on their scores in various entrance exams, such as special high schools and college entrance exams.”
Looking at the above statistics, the most common reason for receiving private education is “school lessons are not enough,” which can be said to be solved to some extent without additional private education if the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is made easier. However, if a student does not fully understand the concepts of a subject because the school lessons are not enough, they will seek private education to fill in the gaps. This is because the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is a relative rather than absolute assessment. The easier the CSAT, the smaller the gap between scores, so in order to get a good grade, you must have a thorough understanding of the subject matter. And, literally, the biggest reason for receiving private education is “because school classes are not enough,” so the most effective way to reduce private education is to “make sure that school classes are sufficient.”
The two reasons that were selected after that, “Because the university you graduated from is important for employment,” 29%, and “Because students are selected based on their scores in various entrance exams, such as special high schools and college entrance exams,” essentially involve the element of “competition.” However, if you implement an easy college entrance exam, the gap between students will become more pronounced. However, it can be said that competition becomes more intense because only a few people get what they want.
To summarize the above statistics, the fundamental reasons for receiving private education are the poor quality of public education and the entrance exam competition. Therefore, to reduce private education, first, public education must be strengthened, and measures to reduce the entrance exam competition must be found. Then, let’s discuss whether the easier College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) reduces the entrance exam competition.
Their position on the need to make the CSAT easier is as follows. First, more people will believe that they can achieve good grades with just studying at school without any extra-curricular activities. Second, it will prevent excellent students from over-exerting themselves to improve their grades and engage in unlimited competition, and it will encourage them to take an interest in holistic activities other than their academic grades. It is also said to have the effect of instilling confidence in students with low grades by helping them achieve a certain level of grades.
First, the government claims that the easier College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) reduces the academic burden on students because they study less, and as a result, the content taught in the previous curriculum is greatly reduced. As a result, according to the Ministry of Education, the difference in SAT scores between regions where private education is prevalent and regions where it is not has narrowed. However, according to the National Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the percentage of students from regions where private education is prevalent who are admitted to top universities has increased after the SAT became easier, because the number of universities using the regular admissions process, which is selected by the SAT, has decreased, and students have had to prepare for the different selective admissions processes used by each university. Each university has a 100-page college admission guide, and the details of the admission process differ from university to university. Accordingly, admission consulting companies charge a considerable fee to provide students and their parents with admission information. Students who have this information in advance are said to have an advantage in the admission process, and as a result, the situation has worsened for students who do not receive private education, making the admission process more difficult.
Second, for the government’s proposed easy college entrance exam to be truly valid, the exam must be an absolute rather than a relative assessment. This is because an absolute assessment allows students who have studied at a certain level to focus on learning rather than on getting a high score. However, because the College Scholastic Ability Test is a relative evaluation, an easy test can make the difference between passing and failing by a single question, which in turn drives students to a “score-grabbing” competition where they must not miss even a single question.
Finally, it is said that an easy test instills confidence in students with low grades. However, as mentioned earlier, the College Scholastic Ability Test is a relative evaluation. Paradoxically, the report cards of students who have taken the SAT show the percentile scores, grade scores, and standard scores received for each subject. In other words, the report cards do not include raw scores, and the above three scores are calculated as relative indicators to other students. It is clear that reducing the difference in raw scores is not the same as instilling confidence.
As long as the College Scholastic Ability Test is a relative assessment, the nature of “ranking” is already inherent in it. Therefore, trying to eliminate that nature is inherently wrong. In other words, an easy College Scholastic Ability Test is not right because it loses the ability to differentiate between the top students, and a difficult College Scholastic Ability Test is problematic because it loses the ability to differentiate between the lower-ranked students. Therefore, it is best for the difficulty level of the College Scholastic Ability Test to be neither one side nor the other. In addition, the reason why private education has become overheated is because public education is not fulfilling its role, as shown in the above statistics. Rather than blaming the problem on a single cause, the problem needs to be addressed by strengthening public education, which can provide education tailored to the preferences of each individual in a school where many students gather.
