September Mock CSAT ‘Failed Massively in Maintaining Difficulty’: One Wrong Answer in Korean Meant Grade 2

The September Mock College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), taken on the 4th of last month, failed to attain differentiability for high-level students. Getting one or two marks wrong in Korean may mean failure to get grade 1. It has also been accessed that the math test was the easiest since the implementation of the current format.

A greatly ‘seesawing difficulty’ is becoming the topic of criticism, in comparison to the ‘fire CSAT-level’ June mock exams. Another point of concern are the students who may find it hard to set their plans.

One the first, the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) announced the 2025 School Year CSAT September mock exams results as the above and below, and that the report cards themselves would be handed out on the second through the places of application registrations.

63 students received full marks for all tests. The figures were 45 graduates and others, and 18 high school grade 3 students. In the June exams the number was 6 (two in high school, four graduated), and only one, a graduate, managed to get full marks in all tests in last year’s CSAT.

The estimated number of testtaker students who received full marks in Korean and Maths were each roughly equal to the number of open admissions for the 39 medical schools this year(4,485). This means that if this test were the real deal, many students may have received the same score for regular admissions for prominent universities nationwide and make it hard for admission faculties to make their acceptances and rejections.

The highest possible standardized score for Korean was 129. It was the lowest since the September mock exams for the 2022 school year(127). 4,478 students received the score of 129. However, some of them may have received a score lower than 129 depending on their selected subjects.

136 was the standardized score for full-markers in maths. It was the lowest since the 2022 school year exams, where the current CSAT format was adopted, with all the actual CSAT exams and mock exams considered.

135 students received the standardized score of 136 in the maths test. However, some perspectives within the entrance exam industry analyze that as this test turned out to be very easy, a score of 135 should also be treated as getting full marks. Including those students the total number is 4,736.

Lim Seongho, CEO of Jongno Hagwon, stated that ‘the maximum score for math may differ between the specific subjects, such as 136 for geometry and 135 for calculus’, and that ‘[we] speculate that even with different standardized scores the original score should have been a full score.’

Standardized scores for full marks decrease when the average original score increases because of an easy test. Comparing with the standardized scores for last year’s full-markers, the score for Korean dropped by 21 points while for maths it was 12.

The bottom line standardized scores for grade 1 was 126 for Korean and 130 for maths.

Only 3 points were between the max score and grade 1 in Korean. Lim states that ‘[students] may have missed grade one if they answered just one or two questions incorrectly’. For maths the difference was 6 points.

The range of maximum standardized scores for social studies was 6 points, while for science it was 12. In the actual regular admissions, the subordinate subjects may have been the meter for students’ admissions or rejections.

English, and absolutely graded subject, saw 10.94% of students(42,212) get grade 1. Those were students who scored 90 or higher of 100 in the test.

The grade 1 ratio for English grew from 9.47%p from the June mock exam(1.47%), and 6.23%p from last year’s CSAT (4.71%).

It was the third easiest test since the adoption of absolute grading back in the 2018 school year CSAT. This follows 15.97% of the September mock trial for the 2023 school year, and 12.66% CSAT for the 2021 school year.

One subordinate subject saw no grade 2 at all. This was Physics I, with 13.71% receiving full marks. Under. relative grading 11% of students receive grade 2 or higher, which the ratio of full-markers surpass. One incorrect answer and it’s a fall to grade 3.

Even more, Korean Geography(standardized score of 66), Chemistry I(67), Physics II(68) saw full marks as the bottom line for grade 1, meaning that one incorrect answer boots the student down to grade 2.

Lim states that ‘If this were the actual test, it would be impossible to differentiate the students for top-level schools such as medical schools and Seoul. For Seoul specifically the subordinate subjects would decide the entry as they do not adjust standardized scores in their admission scores’.

The number or test takers for September mock exams were 386,652, with 20.8% absent from the area. 101,640 applicants did not take the test.

The ‘N-su students’, synonymous with ‘graduates and qualified’, took up 91,581 (23.7%) of test takers. This was the most such takers in 19 years, since the test for the 2006 school year (92,514).

For the ratios of selected specific subjects, it was 38.2% for ‘Language and Media’ and 61.8% for ‘Narration and Composition’ in Korean. The latter saw a 2%p increase of takers from last year’s CSAT.

For math ‘Calculus’ was the most common with 51.6%, followed by 45.5% for ‘Probability and Statistics’ and 2.9% for ‘Geometry’. Calculus and Geometry are usually taken by students aiming to enter the STEM field, while Probability and Statistics is taken by those wanting to get into the liberal arts field.

Although ‘Calculus’ had a 0.6%p increase and ‘Probability and Statistics’ and a 0.5%p increase from last year’s CSAT, ‘Geometry’ on the other hand had a 1.1%p decrease.

380,044 students took the social studies and science subordinate subjects, and out of those 42,373(11.1%) took a test from each field. This was the most since the current format and of course the June mock exams (34,297).

Lee Man-gi, Director of UWay Research Center of Education and Evaluation, analyzed that ‘[this mixture of subjects] is due to the ‘Satam-run’ phenomenon where STEM students aim to get good marks by selecting one social studies subject’, and ‘there was a growth of 36,220 students from last year’s September mock exams in ‘Society and Culture’.’

Woo Yeoncheol, director of Jinhaksa Research Center for Entrance Strategies, stated that ‘Korean, Maths, and English all are projected to be more difficult in the actual SAT’, and ‘looking at the difference in difficulty from the ever-so-difficult June exams, in the CSAT there might be a dialing’.

Detailed grading results such as the standardized scores for all grades can be checked out on KICE’s CSAT website at http://www.suneung.re.kr.