Standard Score Korean 16 Points, Math 3 Points Up... "Trend Toward Confident Applications Likely to Increase" Due to Difficult Exam

Announcement of Evaluation Institute's CSAT Score Analysis Results
High Discrimination in Korean, Math, and English
Exploration of 'Advantages and Disadvantages Among Elective Subjects' Remains
Impact of Excluding Killer Questions and Surge in Graduates

The 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was more difficult than last year. The highest standard score in Korean increased by 16 points compared to last year, and in Mathematics, it rose by 3 points, enhancing the discrimination power among top scorers in both subjects. English was also identified as the most difficult since the introduction of the absolute evaluation system. An analysis suggested that the surge in repeat test-takers (graduates or above) due to the 'killer question exclusion policy' may have influenced the rise in standard scores.

On the 7th, the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation announced the '2024 CSAT Scores and Analysis Results' at the Government Seoul Office.

In the Korean section, the highest standard score was 150 points, up 16 points from last year's highest standard score of 134 points. The standard score indicates how much a test taker's raw score deviates from the average score. When the test is difficult and the average drops, the highest standard score rises; conversely, when the test is easy and the average increases, the highest standard score falls.

Moreover, compared to last year’s CSAT, the number of top scorers with the highest standard score (64 people) decreased, and the score thresholds distinguishing grades 1 and 2 increased, indicating that the test was designed to have high discrimination power among top scorers. On the other hand, the cutoff score for grade 3 (116 points) dropped by 1 point compared to last year, suggesting that the perceived difficulty for mid-level students was similar to last year’s CSAT.

For Mathematics, the highest standard score rose by 3 points from last year to 148 points, indicating that the perceived difficulty was similar or slightly higher. The number of top scorers decreased significantly compared to the September mock exam (2,520 to 612), suggesting that the test had even higher discrimination power.

In the English section, the proportion of grade 1 scorers was 4.17%, which is 3.12 percentage points lower than last year’s CSAT (7.8%) and similar to the September mock exam. The discrimination power among the highest scorers was high, and the proportions of grades 2 and 3 were similar to last year’s CSAT.

Regarding the difficulty of Korean, Mathematics, and English, Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, stated, "Since the introduction of the integrated CSAT, Korean, Mathematics, and English were set as historically difficult tests." He added, "If there is no change in this year’s test policy, next year’s test takers will need to prepare for all subjects and areas with difficulty."

The inquiry subjects were set at a level similar to last year’s CSAT. The difference in cutoff scores for grade 1 among social inquiry subjects was up to 5 points, similar to the 4-point difference in the September mock exam. The difference in cutoff scores for grade 1 among science inquiry subjects was up to 6 points, significantly reduced from 12 points in the September mock exam.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, the issue of unfair advantages and disadvantages among elective subjects, which emerged after the integrated CSAT, continued this year. In this year’s CSAT, among Korean test takers, 59.8% took 'Speech and Writing,' and 40.2% took 'Language and Media.' According to analysis by Uway, the higher highest standard score in 'Language and Media' led to an increase in the number of students choosing this subject. In Mathematics, the selection rate of 'Probability and Statistics,' mainly taken by humanities students, decreased compared to last year’s CSAT (46.2% to 43.2%), while the selection rate of 'Calculus' increased (43.5% to 48.9%).

The proportion of graduates taking this year’s CSAT was 35.4%, up 4.3 percentage points from last year’s 31.1%. The total number of test takers was 447,870, a decrease of 2,799 from last year’s 447,669. The number of current students decreased by 20,782 compared to last year, while the number of graduates increased by 17,983.

CEO Lim explained, "The number of repeat test-takers who expected the test burden to decrease suddenly due to the exclusion of killer questions surged, and it is highly likely that their level was lower than expected compared to last year." He added, "It cannot be ruled out that the standard scores rose higher than expected due to the decline in scores among repeat test-takers." Regarding future application strategies, he analyzed, "Top students will have significantly secured discrimination power, so rather than applying to lower-tier schools, they may tend to apply to higher-tier or their preferred schools. Especially, natural science students may show a stronger tendency to apply confidently, linked to the issue of increased medical school admission quotas next year."

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that there was one perfect scorer across all subjects.

The Institute will notify test takers of their CSAT scoring results on the 8th. Individual score reports will be distributed to test takers through the places where they registered (current schools, district education offices, or former schools).

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