[2022 CSAT] Exam Committee Chair: "Adjusted Questions to Reduce Gap in Highest Standard Scores"

This Year's First Integrated CSAT... Korean and Math Include Common + Elective Subjects
Exam Committee Focuses on Preventing Controversy Over Elective Subject Advantages
"Questions Designed to Minimize Score Gaps"
Concerns Over COVID-19 Learning Polarization Addressed with "No Difference from Previous Years"

On the morning of the 18th, when the 2022 College Scholastic Ability Test was held, examinees were preparing for the exam at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The biggest point of interest in this year's first implementation of the integrated liberal arts and science CSAT is the 'advantage and disadvantage by elective subjects.' The examiners also emphasized that they focused on eliminating the possibility of advantage and disadvantage by elective subjects.

At the 2022 CSAT question direction briefing held at the Government Sejong Complex on the 18th, Wi Su-min, the chairperson of the CSAT question committee (professor at Korea National University of Education), said, "We tried to resolve the advantage and disadvantage by adjusting the difficulty level of questions using the characteristics of examinee groups by elective subjects identified through the two mock exams conducted."

Regarding concerns about the possibility of academic achievement gaps caused by COVID-19, he explained, "After analyzing the two mock exams, no significant differences were found in the characteristics of current students and graduates compared to last year or previous years."

Focus on Minimizing Advantage and Disadvantage: "Maintaining Mock Exam Question Policy"

On the morning of the 18th, when the 2022 College Scholastic Ability Test was held, examinees are energetically entering the examination site set up at Yeouido High School in Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

The greater the difference in the highest standard scores by elective subjects, the more unavoidable the 'advantage and disadvantage' among examinees becomes. Chairperson Wi said, "The question setters and reviewers adjusted the difficulty level of questions to reduce the difference in the highest standard scores."

He added, "The difference in the highest standard scores is what is called the 'divine territory,' and the standard score varies not because of the difficulty of the chosen subject but due to the characteristics of the students. However, we worked on the questions and items to ensure that the highest score difference does not occur."

In the September mock exam, the highest standard score in the Korean language section was 127 points, relatively lower than June's 146 points. This was because the common mathematics subject was considered difficult in the September mock exam. As a result, there were many criticisms about the large difficulty gap between subjects during the June and September mock exams.

It was also explained that there was no standard to make either the common subjects or elective subjects particularly difficult. Chairperson Wi said, "In the curriculum system, common subjects take precedence over elective subjects. Common subjects account for 75% and include a variety of questions ranging from very difficult to very easy. Elective subjects also include discriminative questions, but we tried not to include particularly difficult high-level questions."

Regarding the difficulty difference compared to last year's CSAT, Chairperson Wi explained, "The mock exams maintain last year's CSAT question policy, and the CSAT maintains the mock exam question policy to prevent confusion among examinees." However, he added, "Even if the CSAT question system itself has changed significantly, it is quite difficult to directly compare difficulty because the characteristics of the examinee groups have changed."

"Efforts to Produce English Passages and Questions with High Perceived Difficulty"

On the morning of the 18th, the 2022 College Scholastic Ability Test is being held at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

This year's CSAT is conducted under an integrated liberal arts and science system according to the 2015 revised curriculum. Korean and mathematics are structured as 'common + elective subjects.' In the Korean language section, 70.6% chose 'Speech and Writing' as their elective subject, and in mathematics, 'Probability and Statistics' (53.2%) was more popular. The EBS CSAT textbook and lecture linkage rate also decreased from the previous 70% to 50% based on the number of questions.

From this year, the English section changed the use of EBS lectures and textbooks to 'indirect linkage.' Regarding this, Chairperson Wi said, "The change to indirect linkage was made because students were studying English passages with Korean translations, but considering that students' perceived difficulty increases, we tried to produce passages or questions with a high sense of linkage." He added, "We tried to create questions that feel familiar to students in terms of passages, question formats, and other aspects."

With the change to the integrated CSAT, the method of calculating scores has changed, making it more difficult to estimate scores based on raw scores alone. Even if the raw scores for common and elective subjects are the same, the final standard scores differ depending on the elective subject. Scores are expressed as standard scores, including grades and percentiles, calculated by combining the weighted ratios of common and elective subjects. In this year's 'common + elective subject' structure, the common subject scores of the examinee group for the elective subject are used to adjust the elective subject scores.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation will accept objections related to CSAT questions from today until 6 p.m. on the 21st. After the review, the correct answers will be finalized and announced at 5 p.m. on the 29th.

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