"June Mock Exam" English, "Bulsunung" Similar Level to Last Year

EBS "Same Types and Question Arrangement as Last CSAT"
Academy Community "Passages and Choices Not Too Difficult"

The English section of the June mock test for the 2025 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was analyzed to have been prepared similarly to last year's 'bul-sunung' (extremely difficult test).

At 2:20 PM on the 4th, the third session of the English section of the 2025 CSAT June 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 test trends, including difficulty by session, together with its affiliated teachers.

After the announcement of the admission guidelines reflecting the increase in medical school quotas for the 2025 academic year, repeat students are taking the mock CSAT on the 4th at the Jongno Academy Mokdong main branch in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Kim Ye-ryeong, a teacher at Daewon Foreign Language High School, stated in the briefing on the test trends, "Compared to the 2024 CSAT, the types and arrangement of questions are identical," and analyzed, "While excluding so-called 'killer questions' (ultra-high difficulty questions), the test aimed to secure discrimination within public education."

The number of EBS-linked questions was 24 out of 45, resulting in an EBS linkage rate of 53.3%.

Questions with high discrimination power included number 21 (inference of implicit meaning), 24 (title inference), 34 (order of the text), and 39 (sentence insertion).

In response to reporters' questions asking, "Since last year's CSAT English was evaluated as a difficult test, isn't the June mock test also difficult?" Teacher Kim replied, "Considering the test trend principles of question types and order, and the exclusion of killer questions, the difficulty level of the passages is similar," adding, "Because it utilized vocabulary, sentence structures and expressions within public education, and familiar topics, it is hard to say it was difficult."

Private academies also viewed this English section as easier or similar in level compared to last year's CSAT. MegaStudy stated in a press release, "In last year's CSAT, although the passages themselves were easier, the answer choices were very tricky, resulting in a low percentage of top-grade scorers," and added, "However, this year's June mock test was not particularly tricky in either passages or answer choices, except for blank number 33."

Difficulty evaluations diverged on question number 36, which involved selecting the order of the text. While EBS judged this question to have discrimination power, Jongno Academy also commented, "Question 36 was likely quite difficult in selecting the correct answer." On the other hand, MegaStudy explained, "Question 36 could be solved well by applying the flow of the narrative," and added, "If you pay attention to the temporal flow words such as 'further,' 'previous,' and 'returned,' there would have been no major difficulty."

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