The 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was created for the third consecutive year under a policy of excluding "killer questions" (ultra-difficult items), but it turned out that the Korean, mathematics, and English sections were all challenging. There had been predictions that this year's test would be relatively moderate, as the policy to increase medical school admissions reverted to its original state and the proportion of retakers (graduates and above) decreased compared to last year. However, these predictions proved to be completely off the mark.

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According to the results of this year's CSAT scoring released by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation on December 4, only 3.11% of students (15,154 individuals) received a Grade 1 in the English section. Considering that the proportion of Grade 1 students in English was 6.22% last year, this year's figure has been cut in half.

This is the lowest figure since English switched to absolute grading in the 2018 CSAT, and even compared to subjects graded on a curve where the top 4% receive Grade 1, the percentage is low. The college admissions industry expects that, with fewer students achieving Grade 1 in English, there will be a surge in applicants for rolling admissions who fail to meet the "minimum CSAT grade" requirement. Jongro Academy evaluated, "English was the most difficult CSAT ever."

The same applies to the Korean section. The highest standard score in Korean this year was 147, up 8 points from last year. Generally, if the highest standard score exceeds 140, the test is considered difficult. Since the introduction of the integrated CSAT, the highest standard scores in Korean over the past four years were 149 (2022), 134 (2023), 150 (2024), and 139 (2025). Unlike last year's relatively moderate test, this year's exam was set at the "killer CSAT" level seen in 2022 and 2024, drawing criticism for its "rollercoaster" difficulty.

The highest standard score in mathematics was 139, down 1 point from the previous year. Uway commented, "Although the highest standard score in mathematics dropped by 1 point to 139 compared to last year's CSAT, the Grade 1 cutoff was 128 points, and the number of top scorers decreased by 742, which increased the test's discriminatory power."

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Jinhaksa analyzed, "For top-tier test-takers aiming for medical school and similar programs this year, their success or failure is likely to depend not on how much they compensate for mistakes in mathematics with Korean, but rather on whether they achieve a high score in Korean itself."

Meanwhile, only five students (four current students and one graduate) achieved perfect scores by answering all questions correctly, which is less than half of last year's 11 perfect scorers.

This year, 493,896 students took the CSAT, with 333,102 of them being current students, and 160,794 being graduates or those who passed the qualification exam.

Individual score reports will be distributed on December 5.