"'September Mock Exam' in English, Moderate Level... 'Difficult Vocabulary Excluded'"

EBS "Similar to or harder than June mock exam"
Jongno Academy "Vocabulary explained in detail"
Etus Edu "Many attractive wrong answers"

The English section of the September mock test for the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was analyzed by the admissions industry to be at a similar level to the June mock test this year. However, it was evaluated that the perceived difficulty might not have been low, as questions requiring thoughtful interpretation of the passages were included.

At 2:20 PM on the 6th, the third session English exam of the 2024 CSAT September mock test, administered by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, concluded. On the same day, the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) provided an analysis of the question trends, including difficulty by session, together with on-site teachers.

Regarding the difficulty of the English section, EBS summarized, "It was set at a similar or slightly more difficult level compared to the June mock test this year." They added, "Overly abstract topics were excluded, and questions were designed to require careful reading of the passages rather than problem-solving techniques, focusing on content covered in the public education curriculum, thereby securing overall discriminative power." The EBS linkage rate was identified as 53.3% (24 questions).

On the 6th, students are preparing for the exam at Bangsan High School in Songpa-gu, Seoul, where the September mock test for the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test was held. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Private academies also evaluated the difficulty as moderate. Jongro Academy stated, "Problems causing difficulty in interpretation due to difficult vocabulary and complex sentence structures were significantly reduced," and added, "Vocabulary was explained in detail with annotations within the text, aligning with the policy to exclude difficult vocabulary."

Etus Edu analyzed, "The difficulty level was easier compared to last year’s CSAT and this year’s June mock test," and noted, "There were fewer passages with abstract content and the vocabulary level was easier." However, they explained, "Since many questions required some thought in the process of finding answers after reading and included attractive incorrect options, the perceived difficulty might not have been very low."

Regarding specific questions, EBS evaluated questions 24 (title inference), 33?34 (blank inference), 36 (order of the passage), and 39 (sentence insertion) as discriminative. Etus Edu analyzed that students likely had difficulty finding the answer in question 34 due to figurative expressions. They also considered questions 37 (order of the passage), 38 (sentence insertion), 34, and 30 (vocabulary) to have been difficult.

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