"They Said It Would Only Cover Middle School, But... Over 70% of English and 30% of Math Questions in First-Year High School Assessment Exceeded Curriculum Scope"

9 out of 30 Math Questions, 20 out of 28 English Questions

Set Beyond Middle School Curriculum Scope and Level

Perception Grows That "School Education Alone Is Not Enough" Leading to Increased Private Tutoring

An analysis has found that in the March "National Scholastic Assessment for First-Year High School Students," which is the first mock college entrance exam taken after entering high school, 7 out of 10 English questions and 1 out of 3 math questions were set beyond the scope and level of the official curriculum.

On April 27, the education advocacy group "No Worries About Private Education" held a press conference at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and announced the results of their analysis on "Compliance with the Official Curriculum in the Math and English Sections of the March 2026 First-Year High School Scholastic Assessment."

The March assessment for first-year high school students is the first mock college entrance exam they encounter after entering high school, and the questions are supposed to be based on the "middle school curriculum."

However, after analyzing all the math questions, all English reading questions, and the entire text of four different 2015 revised English 3 textbooks from April 1 to April 17, "No Worries About Private Education" found that out of a total of 30 math questions, 9 questions (33.3%) exceeded the scope and level of the curriculum.

Specifically, these included: ▲ questions outside the scope of the middle school "achievement standards" (questions 13 and 24), ▲ questions that did not comply with the prescribed teaching and learning methods or notes (questions 24 and 25), ▲ questions that did not comply with assessment methods and guidelines (questions 16, 20, 21, 25, 29, and 30), and ▲ questions that would be advantageous for students who had already learned high school content in advance (question 18).

For English, 20 out of 28 reading comprehension questions (71.4%) exceeded the level of the entire third-year middle school English textbook. The group measured English difficulty using the ATOS index (AR index).

As a result, the maximum level of difficulty in four types of third-year middle school textbooks was equivalent to the U.S. sixth grade to the first year of middle school, but 20 questions were found to have a difficulty level of AR grade 8 (U.S. eighth grade) or higher. Comparing the average difficulty of the passages, the March assessment measured AR grade 8.96 (U.S. eighth grade), while all four types of third-year middle school textbooks were at AR grade 5 (U.S. fifth grade), resulting in a three-grade difference. The highest level of difficulty in the March assessment was AR grade 12.63 (U.S. twelfth grade), which is up to six grades higher than the textbooks. The group explained that even if students fully complete the middle school curriculum, it is virtually impossible to achieve a perfect score on the March assessment for first-year high school students.

The highest standard scores, which indicate the difficulty level of the test, were exceptionally high: 146 points for Korean and 156 points for math. For the math section, the highest standard score in the history of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was 149 points in 2020; this assessment was 7 points higher. The group stated, "The average score was very low at 43.31 points, and the standard deviation exceeded 20 points, meaning that the lower group scored in the 20s and even the upper group was in the low 60s, making it an extremely difficult exam."

The English section, which is graded on an absolute scale, was also highly difficult. The group explained, "With an average score of 56.80 points and a standard deviation of 19.10 points, even top students struggled to surpass 70 points," adding, "As a result, the proportion of students achieving the top grade was only 4.38%, which is extremely low." When the proportion of top-grade students in the English section of the 2026 CSAT was just 3.11%, the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation officially apologized for the difficulty and suggested that an appropriate percentage for the top grade should be between 6% and 10%. Even by that standard, the proportion was very low.

The group criticized that "an extremely difficult scholastic assessment that cannot be prepared for through only the school curriculum instills in students taking their first mock CSAT the belief that school education alone is insufficient for CSAT preparation, lowers learning efficacy, and drives participation in private education."

They added, "Although the so-called 'CSAT Killer Question Prevention Act (Special Act on the Promotion of Public Education Normalization and Regulation of Pre-education, or Pre-education Regulation Act)' has been proposed, this law does not regulate the 'scholastic assessment' administered by local education offices," and emphasized, "A revision of the law is necessary to require scholastic assessments to strictly adhere to the curriculum relevant to the test scope."

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