Kim Byungjin, Etoos Director: "This Year's College Admissions, Expansion of Regional Balanced Selection is a Variable"

Differentiation from Traditional Student Records to Regional Balance
Completion Matters More than Advantage in Korean and Math
Top Students Should Maintain Balance, Mid-Level Students Need to Focus on English

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Starting from this year's CSAT, elective subjects will be introduced in Korean and Mathematics, and students will be able to freely choose social studies and science subjects, leading many test-takers to worry about which subject choices are advantageous. There is also a forecast that the Korean language section will become a new standard to gauge differentiation. Kim Byungjin, director of the Etoos Education Evaluation Research Institute, pointed out that an important aspect to watch in the 2022 college entrance system is the increase in universities adopting regional balanced selection admissions, which could become a new variable.

▲Meaning of the expansion of regional balanced selection

= Regional balanced (principal recommendation) admissions will be newly established at Yonsei University, Sogang University, and Sungkyunkwan University, which previously did not have curriculum-based admissions. Most of these are curriculum-centered admissions with eligibility requiring principal recommendation. As students who previously applied through student record (curriculum or comprehensive) admissions split into regional balanced (principal recommendation) admissions, the applicants and successful candidates for student record admissions may change. Many applicants for curriculum-based admissions fill all six early admission applications with the same curriculum-based admissions, but this can lead to additional admissions due to overlapping acceptances and an increase in early admission no-shows and carryovers, making it an important variable.

▲Precautions and strategies regarding the expansion of elective subjects

= For Korean and Mathematics, score calculation includes adjustments to compensate for differences between elective subjects. Since the common subjects have higher weight, it is more desirable to focus on improving learning completeness rather than worrying about advantages or disadvantages of elective subjects. In Korean, there are no restrictions or bonus points based on elective subjects, and in Mathematics, top-tier natural science universities do not give separate bonus points for Calculus or Geometry, so students should choose the one they are better at between Calculus and Geometry.

▲CSAT preparation tips by performance level for top and mid-tier students

= For top-tier students, balanced study without bias toward specific areas is important. There is a tendency to focus on weaknesses, but current strengths cannot be guaranteed to remain strengths until the CSAT, so balanced learning is necessary. For mid-tier students, improving English proficiency is the top priority. They should identify the parts in Korean and Mathematics that must be answered correctly and focus their study on those. Including unsolvable problems in the study scope and worrying about them makes it difficult to maintain study concentration.

▲Why differentiation in CSAT comes from the Korean language section

= Mathematics has the burden of producing many 'math dropouts,' making it difficult to raise difficulty beyond a certain level, and English is an absolute evaluation system, resulting in low differentiation. The inquiry section is divided into 17 subjects, and if its weight increases, the advantages and disadvantages depending on subject choice become very clear. Therefore, differentiation must be secured through Korean. When combined with the nature of Korean, where learning and its effects are not clearly connected, the influence of Korean becomes even greater.

▲Study methods during the COVID-19 situation

= High school sophomores and juniors should carefully review their school records. If considering comprehensive student record admissions, they should organize their activities so far and plan supplementary activities after returning to school. It is good to focus on subject-related 'detailed abilities and special notes' and be faithful to subject-specific curricular activities or plan extracurricular activities that have been conducted regularly. Even if remote classes continue, teachers’ observations and evaluations along with remote class (assignments) content can be recorded in the school record, so students should participate in remote classes as sincerely as regular school classes.

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