Evaluation Institute Delays 'Life Science II' Score Announcement... Will All Answers Be Correct? (Comprehensive)

Ahead of the Score Announcement on the 10th, Court Accepts 'Answer Execution Suspension'
Evaluation Institute Decides to Postpone Score Announcement Only for Life Science Examinees
Admissions Industry: "Processing All 20 Answers as Correct Is the Way to Reduce Confusion"
In 2014 World Geography, Examinee Won in Second Trial, Recalculation a Year Later

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Following the court's decision to suspend the enforcement related to the answer key error in Life Science II, the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) has decided to withhold the announcement of the scores for the subject for the time being.

On the 9th, KICE announced that it would postpone the notification of scores for 6,515 examinees who took Life Science II on the scheduled score notification day of the 10th. Examinees who did not choose this subject will receive their score reports as planned.

A KICE official stated, "To minimize inconvenience to examinees, we are internally reviewing whether it is technically possible to notify the scores by leaving the Life Science II section blank on the score reports of those who took the subject and providing the rest of the scores."

On the same day, the Administrative Court of Seoul, Administrative Division 6, accepted the injunction request filed by 92 Life Science II examinees against KICE, deciding to suspend the validity of the answer key until the main trial verdict is delivered. The first hearing for the main lawsuit is scheduled for the 10th.

The court ruled, "Even if it may affect the university admission schedule, expediting the trial of the main case can minimize the disruption, and suspending enforcement until the verdict of the main case will not adversely affect the public welfare."

The admissions industry views recognizing all the disputed questions as correct answers as the way to reduce confusion. The final announcement of early admission results is on the 16th, and the regular admission application period starts on the 30th.

If all disputed questions are accepted as correct, the highest standard score (69 points) is expected to drop by about 1 to 2 points. The disputed question is worth 2 points, and according to EBS statistics, the correct answer rate for question 20 in Life Science was 24.6%.

Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, said, "The most stable approach would be for KICE to immediately regrade and reprocess the scores by tomorrow," adding, "If the trial proceeds after both early and regular admissions are completed and the results are reversed, it will inevitably cause further confusion and could change the admission outcomes for both early and regular rounds."

If KICE maintains its current stance, confusion such as multiple admissions could occur. If KICE does not acknowledge the error and the case proceeds to trial with a reversed outcome, scores will have to be recalculated.

The 2014 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is a representative case. At that time, examinees raised objections to question 8 in Social Studies World Geography, filed an injunction request against KICE's decision, but the court rejected the injunction. About 10 months later, in October 2014, the examinees won the appeal, and the scores were recalculated.

On the 8th, examinees who applied for a suspension of execution against the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation regarding errors in the Life Science II questions of the College Scholastic Ability Test came out of the courtroom after the hearing at the Seoul Administrative Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and held a press conference. (Photo by Yonhap News)

During the briefing on the CSAT score announcement held that day, KICE did not mention any follow-up measures in case the injunction decision was upheld.

Kang Tae-jung, President of KICE, said, "We are not prejudging the outcome and will adhere to the schedule expected by examinees and universities," adding, "We did not anticipate the result and have not conducted simulations, so we cannot provide an answer yet."

Regarding the reason for maintaining the answer key, President Kang explained, "We presented about seven conditions that help solve this question, and we acknowledged that one of the conditions was not directly helpful for solving the problem," but added, "Experts and teachers judged that even acknowledging this, it is possible to reach the correct answer using other conditions, and considering this, maintaining the answer key has significance in terms of fairness."

Regarding question 20 of Life Science II, examinees and the admissions industry raised objections stating, "Since there is no group that can simultaneously satisfy all the conditions presented in the question, the question contains an error and should be marked correct for all." KICE maintained its previous position announced on the 29th of last month, stating that "even if the conditions of the question are incomplete, the validity of the evaluation question is maintained," and found no issues.

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