Court to Deliver Verdict Today on 'Life Science II Exam Error Lawsuit'

On the 8th, when the first court battle over the Life Science II question in the CSAT, which sparked controversy over a question error, was held, examinees who applied for a suspension of execution against the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation came out of the courtroom after the hearing at the Seoul Administrative Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and held a press conference.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Regarding the '2022 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) question error controversy,' a court ruling on question 20 of the Science Inquiry Area Biology II will be announced on the 15th.

The Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 6 (Chief Judge Lee Jooyoung) will hold a verdict session at 2 p.m. on the same day for a lawsuit filed by 92 Biology II test takers against the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) seeking cancellation of the answer decision.

The court advanced the originally scheduled verdict date from the 17th to the 15th. This is interpreted as an effort to minimize confusion in academic schedules by issuing an early ruling amid the imminent university admission schedule.

Earlier, the test takers filed a main lawsuit on the 2nd, claiming there was an error in question 20 of Biology II and requesting the cancellation of KICE's answer decision, while also applying for a provisional injunction to temporarily suspend the effect of the answer decision. On the 9th, the court ruled, "The decision by KICE on November 29 to designate answer 5 for question 20 of Biology II is suspended until the main lawsuit verdict is announced," granting the provisional injunction.

Subsequently, KICE distributed score reports to test takers with the Biology II score marked as 'blank,' and the Ministry of Education, after consulting with the Korea Council for University Education, postponed the announcement date of early admission successful candidates to the 18th. The registration period for early admission successful candidates was also delayed from the 17th?20th to the 18th?21st, and the early admission unregistered supplementary admission period was postponed from the 21st?27th to the 22nd?28th, each by one day.

The question at the center of the error controversy involves reading a given passage to identify which of two groups maintains Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and then evaluating whether the truth of three answer choices can be determined based on this.

The test takers who filed the lawsuit argued that according to the passage, calculating results in a negative (-) number of individuals in one group, indicating an error that invalidates the premise of the question itself. On the other hand, KICE maintained the answer decision, stating that even if the conditions of the question are incomplete, it remains a valid assessment item to differentiate academic achievement levels.

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