{"id":12094,"date":"2025-12-13T09:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T09:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/exam-chief-in-south-korea-resigns-after-college-entry-english-test-deemed-too-difficult\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T09:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T09:12:10","slug":"exam-chief-in-south-korea-resigns-after-college-entry-english-test-deemed-too-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/exam-chief-in-south-korea-resigns-after-college-entry-english-test-deemed-too-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"Exam chief in South Korea resigns after college entry English test deemed too difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>Exam chief in South Korea resigns due to college entry English test being too difficult<\/h2>\n<p>On Wednesday (10 Dec), the chief official responsible for South Korea&rsquo;s annual college entrance exams resigned after massive backlash over the English portion of the test.<\/p>\n<p>Results of the College Scholastic Ability Test, or Suneung, which was administered to students on 13 Nov, were released earlier this month on 4 Dec.<\/p>\n<p>The exam saw the lowest proportion of &ldquo;Level 1&rdquo; high scorers since 2018, with only around 3% of 15,154&nbsp;test takers getting the top grade.<\/p>\n<p>In tests which officials consider an &ldquo;appropriate&rdquo; level of difficulty, 7% of students typically&nbsp;achieve the Level 1 score.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_682795\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-682795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: The Korea Herald<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Pushing students into private tutoring academies<\/h3>\n<p>At a press conference, the exam chief, Oh Seung-geol, expressed regret and explained the reasoning for why the test was so challenging.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>&ldquo;For the English section, we found many questions that were similar to those used in private mock tests,&rdquo; he said. As a result, the team changed the questions, but were unable to assess how difficult they would be.<\/p>\n<p>The recent results have cast a spotlight on private education in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Already, anxious parents are looking to enroll their children in these academies.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been getting consultation calls since the score reports were released,&rdquo; one academy head said.<\/p>\n<p>However, many are still concerned about those who lack access to such resources.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If we do not strengthen public education, students in rural areas &mdash; who already lack access to private education &mdash; will be at a disadvantage,&rdquo; said an official.<\/p>\n<h3>Infamous English exam<\/h3>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>The English portion of the College Scholastic Ability Test is infamous for its difficulty.<\/p>\n<p>The college entrance exam, more commonly known as Suneung, can determine a high school student&rsquo;s trajectory in life from their future job prospects to relationships.<\/p>\n<p>The English test, however, has long been controversial &mdash; with many native English speakers calling the questions &ldquo;crazy&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>The questions typically demand students to have field-specific knowledge. That or they have to be good test takers.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The problems have nothing to do with English comprehension,&rdquo; one public school teacher in South Korea said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But the students who do well on the test don&rsquo;t try to &lsquo;understand&rsquo; the given text and passage. Instead, they focus on how to get to the answer with the knowledge they have.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_682796\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-682796\" class=\"wp-image-682796 size-full lazyload\" alt=\"exam resigns english difficult example\" width=\"942\" height=\"621\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/mustsharenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/exam-resigns-english-difficult-3.jpg 942w, https:\/\/mustsharenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/exam-resigns-english-difficult-3-600x396.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mustsharenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/exam-resigns-english-difficult-3-150x99.jpg 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 942px) 100vw, 942px\" src=\"https:\/\/mustsharenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/exam-resigns-english-difficult-3.jpg\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-682796\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: The Korea Herald<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Also read: Teen in M&rsquo;sia swims through floodwaters to sit for exam, says he did it for his future<br><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"sHTcEibT8O\" readability=\"0\">\n<p>Teen in M&rsquo;sia swims through floodwaters to sit for exam, says he did it for his future<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><i>Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at&nbsp;news@mustsharenews.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Featured image adapted from The Korea Herald and Medium.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><sub>Exam chief in South Korea resigns after college entry English test deemed too difficult<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exam chief in South Korea resigns due to college entry English test being too difficult On Wednesday (10 Dec), the chief official responsible for South Korea&rsquo;s annual college entrance exams resigned after massive backlash over the English portion of the test. Results of the College Scholastic Ability Test, or Suneung, which was administered to students&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/exam-chief-in-south-korea-resigns-after-college-entry-english-test-deemed-too-difficult\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Exam chief in South Korea resigns after college entry English test deemed too difficult&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}