"Only One September Mock Exam Left... Complete Confusion Among 3rd Year High School Students"

Current Teacher, SBS Radio Interview
"Excluding Killer Questions Is Ineffective"

As the government announced that it will exclude killer questions (ultra-difficult questions) from this year's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), confusion among test-takers continues.

Jeong Mira, deputy director of the Education Policy Design Institute and a teacher at Byeongjeom High School in Gyeonggi Province, appeared on SBS Radio's 'Kim Taehyun's Political Show' on the 22nd and described the situation as "pure confusion," saying, "Students are very anxious about whether the CSAT evaluation can be properly conducted by experimenting with this (exclusion of killer questions) based on just the September mock exam."

Deputy Director Jeong said, "Since college admission policies are sensitive, a four-year notice system is in place, but suddenly there was an announcement that the questions on the CSAT would be changed," adding, "Right now, all the students are working through the EBS CSAT Special Lectures, and there are voices questioning whether even the EBS questions are useless."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

She evaluated the government's direction to reduce private education demand by excluding killer questions as ineffective. She said, "We need to consider whether students attend academies solely because of killer questions," adding, "Students attend academies mainly due to anxiety about the CSAT."

She continued, "To alleviate this anxiety, students attend academies a lot," and "Especially when they go to Gangnam, it is the students aiming for top-tier universities who intend to prepare thoroughly for killer questions."

Deputy Director Jeong explained, "Schools have various constraints such as curriculum progress and evaluations," adding, "So it is quite challenging to cover the curriculum, and it is impossible to provide additional materials to students, which inevitably drives students to the private education market where they can have opportunities to encounter such materials."

She pointed to the expansion of the regular admission system as the cause of the weakening of public education. As the importance of the CSAT increased due to the expansion of regular admissions, the structure forced reliance on private education. Deputy Director Jeong said, "I was disappointed with education policy the moment the previous government announced a 40% expansion of regular admissions," criticizing it as "an act that completely destroyed the structure in which school education could do something." She added, "Even when schools reduce night self-study or free study time, students are all listening to internet lectures from Gangnam academies."

Finally, Deputy Director Jeong emphasized the need to reform college admission policies to strengthen the effectiveness of public education. She said, "If we continue to focus on solving problems centered on the CSAT due to the expansion of regular admissions, students can only solve problems. School reputations change based on a 1 or 2 point difference in CSAT scores," adding, "To bring students back into public education, it is necessary to adopt an absolute evaluation system for the CSAT."

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