663 Objections to the CSAT... English Leads with 349 Cases

Integrated CSAT shows a 34.6% decrease compared to the first year
Controversy over similar questions in private mock exams, 127 objections on English question 23... Final answers announced on the 29th

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Bang Je-il] A total of 663 objections were filed within five days after the 2023 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) held on the 17th.

According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), the CSAT test agency, as of 6 p.m. the previous day, a total of 663 objection posts were posted on the 'CSAT Questions and Answers Objection Board' operated by KICE. This is 351 cases (34.6%) fewer than last year's 1,014 cases, which was the first year of the integrated liberal arts and science CSAT.

Among them, more than half, 349 cases (52.6%), were related to the English section. There were 215 cases reporting inconvenience during the listening test at the exam site due to sound quality issues. Many complaints included "The low tones were muffled and the pronunciation was hard to hear" and "It was distracting and affected the reading comprehension problem-solving."

There were also 127 cases of suspicion that question 23 in English was a 'carbon copy' of mock exam questions created by private academies. One objection post writer claimed, "It was a question favorable to students attending that academy," and argued, "There is a fairness issue, so all should be marked correct."

The next most objected section after English was the Social Studies section, with a total of 115 cases (17.3%) filed. The disputed questions numbered 27, with objections concentrated in subjects such as Social and Culture and East Asian History.

For question 7 in Social and Culture, it was pointed out that choice 3, not choice 1, was the correct answer. The behavior of the subject in the passage is a case explained by Merton's Anomie theory, so choice 3, which describes this, is the correct answer.

In East Asian History, question 10 received many objections. The objection was that in choice 1, which states "opposed Song," it was unclear whether 'Song' referred to the Song of Songje Yangjin (420?479) or the Song founded by Zhao Kuangyin (960?1279), making it difficult to clearly judge correctness. Following these were Korean language with 71 cases, Mathematics with 56, Science Inquiry with 43, Korean History with 15, Second Foreign Language/Chinese Characters with 11, and Vocational Inquiry with 3 cases.

Last year, regarding question 20 in the Science Inquiry Life Science II section, although KICE concluded there was no issue after receiving objections, after going to court, a test error was recognized and all were marked correct.

KICE plans to compile the posts and exclude opinions unrelated to questions and answers, cancellations, and duplicates to determine the subjects for review. The final answers will be confirmed on the 29th after the review.

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