Lee Ju-ho: "Remove Unfair Killer Questions... Don't Be Misled by 'Fear Marketing'"

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, expressed an apology for the fact that killer questions (ultra-difficult questions) outside the curriculum were included in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

On the 26th, while announcing the 'Measures to Reduce Private Education' at the government Seoul office, Deputy Prime Minister Lee said, "Regardless of past governments, the basic principle was to set CSAT questions within the public education curriculum," adding, "On behalf of the exam authorities, I deeply reflect on the fact that killer questions were included without meeting the expectations of students and parents."

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho is announcing measures to reduce private education expenses on the 26th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

Deputy Prime Minister Lee stated, "Killer questions are literally questions not covered within public education, and from the perspective of students and parents, they are unfair questions," and reflected, "It has long been the Ministry of Education's policy to set CSAT questions within the high school curriculum, and the so-called providers and exam authorities have claimed to have consistently adhered to this."

He continued, "Eliminating killer questions is securing minimum fairness and removing problems that are at the peak of inducing private education," emphasizing, "This measure will by no means weaken the important role of CSAT in differentiation, and I assure that there will be no confusion for those preparing for the CSAT."

When asked about what types of questions will appear in this year's CSAT, Deputy Prime Minister Lee replied, "We are not creating new principles or new types of questions," and added, "There is a mood that new types will appear or that academies will start 'fear marketing,' but I ask you not to be misled by that."

Regarding the expansion of CSAT information disclosure such as answer rates, he explained, "After discussions with experts, there are several important pieces of information such as the answer rate and discrimination for each question, but many opinions suggest that disclosing them could have side effects," and added, "This year, we need to focus on removing killer questions, so information disclosure will be decided after sufficient social discussion to be implemented in the 2025 CSAT."

On whether there is a need to apply absolute evaluation to Korean or Math sections like the English section, he said, "It is actually difficult to make a major overall reform of the CSAT system," and added, "Removing killer questions in question setting can be done immediately, and from next year's CSAT, we will continue to strive for better CSAT question setting."

Regarding the plan to increase the proportion of current teachers among CSAT question setters, the reason for not implementing it immediately from the 2024 CSAT is also, "I think efforts are needed to minimize the anxiety of students preparing for this year's CSAT," and he responded, "After this year's CSAT ends, we will work on institutional improvements from a mid- to long-term perspective."

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