[2024 CSAT] EBS "English Section Harder Than Last Year... 'High Abstraction Topics' Excluded" (Comprehensive)

"Questions Requiring Comprehensive Thinking Skills"
EBS Linkage Rate is 53.3%

The English section of the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was analyzed by EBS to be more difficult than last year's CSAT and at a similar level to this September's mock exam. They explained that highly abstract topics were excluded, and questions were designed to increase discrimination by requiring precise analysis of the answer choices to find the correct answers.

At the '2024 CSAT English Section Question Trend Analysis Briefing' held on the 16th at the Government Sejong Complex, Kim Bora, a teacher from Samgaksan High School and a member of the EBS on-site teacher group who analyzed the third session English section questions, explained, "While excluding elements of so-called 'killer questions' (ultra-high difficulty questions), discrimination was secured." She added that the type of 'killer questions' known for the English section, involving 'excessively abstract topics,' was excluded.

Regarding discrimination, she said, "The question arrangement is similar to the 2023 CSAT," and although familiar topics were covered, many questions required careful reading of the passages and analysis of the answer choices to solve, making it somewhat more difficult than the 2023 CSAT and expected to be similar to this September's mock exam." Teacher Kim stated, "Similar to the tone of the September mock exam, rather than mechanically applying simple problem-solving methods, the questions are composed so that answers can be found only by thoroughly reading the passages based on reading comprehension and comprehensive thinking skills and accurately analyzing the answer choices."

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Questions with discrimination included numbers 24 (title inference), 33 (blank inference), 34 (blank inference), 37 (order of the text), and 39 (sentence insertion). The EBS linkage rate was identified as 53.3%.

For question 24, the vocabulary within the passage consisted of familiar expressions commonly encountered in public education, and the sentence structure was clear, so elements of a killer question were excluded. However, it was evaluated that discrimination was secured because the main idea of the passage could only be grasped by reading to the end, and the test-taker had to select a title that encapsulated that main idea.

Question 33 was considered highly discriminative because keywords in the passage were replaced with various expressions in the answer choices, making it easy to choose the wrong answer if one relied solely on the keywords to understand the passage's content. Question 34 also secured discrimination by requiring reading to the end of the passage, and question 37 was analyzed as needing the ability to synthesize content since it could not be solved with just a few clues. Question 39 was also evaluated as a challenging question because approaching it with only one clue increased the likelihood of selecting the wrong answer.

The admissions industry also analyzed that the test was more difficult than last year's CSAT. Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, said, "It was difficult at a level similar to the very challenging September mock exam and was more difficult compared to last year's CSAT," adding, "The passages included many long sentences, and texts on various unfamiliar topics were presented, which likely caused difficulties in sentence interpretation and many students probably felt time pressure."

Kim Byung-jin, director of the Etoos Education Evaluation Research Institute, also analyzed, "Although passages with abstract content in reading comprehension decreased, many questions required thinking in the process of finding answers or included attractive wrong answers, making problem-solving challenging."

The MegaStudy Education English teaching staff also said, "It was slightly more difficult than last year's CSAT and easier than the September mock exam," adding, "Questions 24, 33, 34, and 39 were the ones that determined the grade."

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