Significant Overhaul of CSAT Question Setting and Objection Review... Extension of Question Setting Period and One-Day Delay in Answer Announcement

Expansion of CSAT Review Committee from 8 to 12 Members
Extension of Question Development Period from 36 to 38 Days
Introduction of High-Difficulty Question Review Stage
Establishment of 'Minority Opinion Reverification' in Appeal Process
Appointment of External Member as Appeal Committee Chair
Full Disclosure of Advisory Content and Academic Society Names

Procedural Improvement Plan for College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) Objection Review (Source: Ministry of Education)

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Education has acknowledged that the process for reviewing questions in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) Life Science II section lacked comprehensive review and proper handling of minority opinions. As a result, it will significantly improve the question creation and objection review system. Once the improvements are finalized, the CSAT question creation period will be extended by two days starting this year, and the answer announcement schedule will be delayed by one day compared to before.

On the 23rd, the Ministry of Education announced a draft plan titled "CSAT Question Creation and Objection Review System Improvement Plan" to prevent errors in CSAT questions and enhance the fairness and objectivity of the objection review process. Public opinions will be collected until March 2.

After analyzing the cause of the error found in question 20 of the 2022 CSAT, the Ministry found that there was insufficient multifaceted review to identify unnecessary conditions for solving the problem. A Ministry official explained, "During the objection review process, one expert from a related academic society raised a minority opinion that there was an error if a condition was problematic. However, the majority opinion from the Curriculum Education Society and the education field was that the problem could be resolved with general considerations, so it could not be regarded as an error."

So far, there have been a total of nine cases recognized as question errors in the CSAT: 2004 Language, 2008 Physics II, 2010 Earth Science I, 2013 World Geography, 2015 English, 2015 Life Science II, 2017 Korean History, 2017 Physics II, and 2022 Life Science II. In December last year, due to a CSAT question error, examinees filed lawsuits against the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), resulting in an unprecedented injunction to suspend the answer enforcement. This caused confusion, including a two-day delay in the announcement of early admission results due to the delayed release of Life Science II scores.

Changes in the CSAT Question Review Procedure (Source: Ministry of Education)

2022 Academic Year Current CSAT Question Setting Procedures and Participants (Source: Ministry of Education)

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education plans to expand the number of CSAT review committee members and the question creation period, and establish a new review stage for high-difficulty questions. To enhance objectivity in the objection review process, a minority opinion re-verification procedure will be introduced, and the chairperson of the objection review committee will be appointed from outside experts. The advisory contents and the names of academic societies will also be fully disclosed.

The Ministry will increase the number of advisory reviewers from 8 to 12 experts in the social and science fields. In the social studies domain, one additional reviewer each will be added for Economics and Politics and Law subjects. Social Culture, Ethics, Geography, and History will each have one reviewer. In the science inquiry domain, the number of reviewers for Life Science and Earth Science will be increased from one to two each, while Physics and Chemistry will remain at one each.

The question creation period will be extended from 36 days to 38 days. Excluding the printing period, the total question creation period will increase from 21 to 23 days for Korean, Mathematics, and English sections, and from 18 to 20 days for inquiry subjects and others.

A new review stage for high-difficulty questions by domain and subject will be established. A separate review team composed of planning committee members, evaluation committee members, and advisory reviewers for each domain and subject will intensively review high-difficulty questions that use multiple conditions or have various solving methods. The Korean, Mathematics, and English teams will consist of 5 members each, and the Social and Science inquiry teams will have 5 to 6 members per subject group.

In the objection review system, a procedure to re-verify minority opinions will be introduced. If there are disagreements or minority opinions during the objection review working committee, an additional review period will be held with a second working committee meeting. One member who expressed approval and one who expressed disapproval in the first working committee, along with three new external members, will re-examine the disagreements or minority opinions.

The objection review period will also be extended from 12 to 13 days. Starting next year, the CSAT answer confirmation and announcement schedule will be delayed by one day to November 29. The score notification date and subsequent schedules will remain unchanged.

For the social and science domains, where objections frequently occur, the composition of the objection review working committees will be changed. The working committee members will be subdivided by subject, and the number of external members will increase from 2 to 5. Korean, Mathematics, and English will have 5 external experts each, and Social and Science will have 5 per subject group. For major issues, three additional advisory academic society members will be added to conduct the objection review. Existing internal members such as question creators will be converted to reference members.

Improvement Plan for the Composition of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) Objection Review Committee (Source: Ministry of Education)

To increase transparency in the academic society advisory process, the names of the advisory societies and the contents will be disclosed. A list of academic societies to be consulted will be prepared in advance based on criteria of expertise, representativeness, and nationwide coverage. In case of major issues, consultations will be requested from three or more societies, focusing on related content societies. The names of the consulted societies and the advisory contents will also be disclosed.

To strengthen the independence and objectivity of the objection review committee, the chairperson will be appointed from outside experts, and the proportion of external members will increase from 56% to 82%. In addition to the question creation chairperson and review chairperson, external members such as field teachers, parents, legal professionals, and officials from other national exams will be added. Nine out of eleven members will be external experts.

The Ministry of Education plans to announce the final improvement plan in March after collecting public opinions. The finalized plan will be reflected in the "2023 CSAT Implementation Basic Plan" to be announced by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation at the end of March and will be applied starting with this year's CSAT.

Anyone with opinions on the CSAT question creation and objection review system can submit their views through the CSAT website or the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation website notification window from the 24th until March 2.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye said, "We will do our best to prevent question errors through system improvements and thorough operation, and to ensure that objection reviews are conducted fairly and objectively."

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