Even 18-Year-Olds Take the Exam and Use the Restroom... Changing Civil Service Exams

Lowering the Eligibility Age from 20 to 18 Starting This Year
Allowing Bathroom Breaks During the Grade 9 Public Service Exam

Starting this year, the age limit for civil service recruitment exams will be lowered, and interview evaluations reflecting the desired qualities of candidates will be implemented. Additionally, convenience support measures, such as allowing restroom use during all civil service selection exams administered by the Ministry of Personnel Management, will be expanded. On the 2nd, the Ministry of Personnel Management announced the '2024 National Civil Service Open Competitive Examination Plan' through the Cyber National Examination Center.

Through this announcement, the Ministry stated that it will implement various civil service recruitment exams and convenience support systems to reduce the burden on exam candidates and select talented individuals. The most notable change in the recruitment exam system this year is the lowering of the age requirement for the Grade 5 and Grade 7 national civil service exams from '20 years or older' to '18 years or older.'

From this year, the age limit for applying to civil service exams will be lowered, and interview evaluations reflecting the desired qualities of candidates will be implemented. In addition, convenience support measures, such as allowing full access to restrooms during all civil service selection exams conducted by the Ministry of Personnel Management, will be expanded.
[Photo by Ministry of Personnel Management]

This adjustment aligns the age requirement for Grade 7 and above civil service exams with that of Grade 8 and below, eliminating differences by rank, expanding opportunities for young talent to enter public service, and focusing on ability rather than age in selecting candidates. The revision also takes into account the 2022 amendment to the Public Official Election Act, which lowered the eligibility age for candidates for National Assembly members or local government heads from 25 to 18 years. However, the age requirement for the correctional and protection job series remains at 20 years or older for all ranks, unchanged from the current standard.

Full Implementation of Interview Evaluations Reflecting Civil Service Talent Qualities

Furthermore, the Ministry overhauled the interview evaluation criteria last year to be based on the civil service talent qualities of communication and empathy, dedication and passion, creativity and innovation, and ethics and responsibility. Flexibility was also introduced to allow the head of the exam administration agency to add evaluation criteria if necessary. According to the revised criteria, detailed evaluation competencies for the interview will be adjusted and applied, with the Ministry’s recruitment exams adopting these changes starting from the May 9 interview for the Grade 7 regional talent trainee positions. However, the current structured interview format, which includes a personal (5-minute) presentation using pre-prepared questions and experience/situational interviews, will be maintained.

In April of last year, when the written examination for the Level 9 National Civil Service Open Competitive Recruitment was held, examinees were coming out of the test site at a high school in Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

In addition, the foreign language elective subject in the second stage of the Grade 7 Foreign Service Consular Officer open competitive exam will be replaced by a foreign language proficiency test. This means that among German, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, the foreign language elective subject will be substituted with a credible proficiency test, the same as that used in the Diplomatic Service Candidate Selection Exam. Since practical second language skills are essential for Foreign Service Consular Officers, this change aims to strengthen the assessment of comprehensive language abilities, including listening, and to resolve fairness issues caused by differences in difficulty among elective subjects.

The acceptable foreign language proficiency tests are those conducted since 2019, with scores (grades) announced by the day before the second exam date recognized. The types of tests and passing scores are the same as those for the Diplomatic Service Candidate Selection Exam. With the reduction of exam subjects from four to three, the number of questions will decrease from 100 to 75, and the total exam time will be adjusted from 100 minutes to 75 minutes.

Restroom Use Allowed During Grade 9 Open Competitive Exams

On April 2nd last year, candidates were coming out of the examination hall at a high school in Seoul where the Level 9 National Civil Service open competitive written exam was held.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Convenience for examinees will also be further improved. Starting this year, during the Grade 9 open competitive written exams, examinees will be allowed to use the restroom during exam time to protect their human rights and enhance convenience. Restroom use, which had been gradually expanded, will now be fully permitted during all national civil service selection exams. Previously, if a Grade 9 written exam candidate urgently used the restroom, re-entry to the exam room was not allowed, forcing them to abandon the exam. From this year, however, candidates will be allowed to re-enter the exam room after restroom use in all national exams, enabling them to continue the test.

However, restroom use time will be included in the exam time, and to prevent disruption to other candidates and ensure smooth exam operation, the time and number of restroom uses will be designated. Restroom use is allowed once per exam session, starting 20 minutes after the exam begins and ending 10 minutes before the exam finishes. Furthermore, the step-by-step text response (feedback) service for civil service recruitment exams will continue this year as it did last year. This service notifies candidates via text message (linked with the National Secretary Notification Service) when they have successfully completed application submission, convenience support requests, and candidate registration. The Grade 5 open competitive and Diplomatic Service Candidate Selection Exams will be held on March 2, the first stage of the Grade 7 open competitive exam on July 27, and the Grade 9 open competitive written exam on March 23, respectively.

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