Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

11-13-2008 18:11

Korean Test Culture ― Too Unique


Half naked students wearing black ties sing a song in front of Chunchon High School in Gangwon Province to cheer up their seniors taking the college admission test, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Not only to foreigners who are unfamiliar with Korea but those who are already accustomed to the country think the state-administered college entrance exam is a unique cultural experience that they can hardly understand or witness in other nations.

Company workers and civil servants were supposed to report to work one hour later than usual to ease traffic jams which could disturb test takers. Drivers were restrained from honking their horns when passing by schools and aircraft had to delay landing and take-off during Korean and English listening tests.

The government mobilized all measures to support university hopefuls Thursday. To help transport test takers and secure the safety of exam places, some 14,000 policemen were positioned with 4,200 motorcycles and emergency vehicles. The National Emergency Rescuers were also called in to help provide transportation for test takers in their ambulances.

``It is a day of supreme importance to a Korean person's academic life. It's pressure filled and determines one's future path, which some see as unfair. Many other countries spread out final exams over a week or two so that a person's testing is not dependent on one day,�� said Gavin Farrell, a Canadian living in Seoul.

``I think Korea has valued tests from long long time ago. For example, `Gwageo� or traditional national civil service exam decided one�s life. In Korea, however, once students get in universities, it is easy to graduate,�� he added.

Some 590,000 high school seniors and graduates took the College Scholastic Ability Test at nearly 1,000 schools across the nation starting at 8:40 a.m.

Many parents remained outside even after their children entered the test venue, some praying for their children�s success in the life-decision test. Temples and churches across the country were packed with mothers praying for their children.

``Korea has fascination with tangible results for scores, something countable. While American universities use a lot of non-countable data, Korean universities use non-quantifiable data such as letters from teachers, students essay and personal resume,�� said Rob Dickey, an American professor of Gyeongju University. ``The test culture here overpowers all other aspects of child life. They don't have a chance to build a resume because they spend all the time for the test so that affects everything about students and their future lives.��

The professor, who has been here for 14 years, said that the state exam is overestimated and unfairly decides the future of an individual.

``We, foreigners, can�t imagine deciding all our life at age 17, but the test dictates which university I go to, which then dictates my adult opportunities because everything comes down to one test day, one day in your life,�� he said. ``It is chicken and egg problem; Schools rate the test because students have no other lives and students have no other lives because of the test.��

THISISATEST

[Smee]

They ran pretty much the exact same article last year. I remember the "unique" line.

It is "unique," I guess, and kind of interesting. But it's trumped by the soul-destroying nature of the exam, and knowing that we're going to read about 17-year-old kids jumping off apartments for the next month.

[RACETRAITOR]

I know it's not quite as life-altering as the Korean one, but doesn't the US have a college entrance exam as well?

[akiakiaki]

Yeah, the US has the SAT's for entrance exams but, you can take it as many times as you'd like. The Korean one is only once a year. That's really too intense...

[eamo]

So why is it all done in one day? 7 or 8 hours of testing in one day!!! Why not spread it out?

[seoulsucker]

[Adventurer]

What they should do is start making the test less and less important. And rely more and more on extra-curricular activities. However, how can you really change the Korean system like that. It seems like it would be too hard to do.

[seoulsucker]

There's a lot of "rite of passage" stuff going on with this as well. It seems almost like a national fraternity/hazing kind of thing.

Can you imagine the whining the sophomores of less famous/popular/prestigious universities would do once they started rolling this plan out?

"Waaaaaaaaaaah, I couldn't get into SKY because the tests were too tough, but now my little brother Bum-suck is getting a free pass." etc.

[jvalmer]

I think you are allowed to retake the test as many times as you want. Unfortunately you'll have to wait a year to rewrite it.

In my home province our grade 12 diploma exams were 3 hours long, per subject. So you would have to write maybe three, or four, 3 hour tests in a week long period. And the next semester you'd do the test for a different set of 3 or 4 subjects. You have an opportunity to take any of the government sanctioned exams 3 times a year though.

So, what else can they do to lessen the stress? Make them write 3 hour tests for each subject spread out over a few days? I'd say maybe offer the tests 2 or 3 times a year. Or redo the system and make each subject more detailed and spread it out over a week and also offer it 2 or 3 times a year.

[denistron]

The answer: Standardized high school tests.

If every school gives the same exam, with one exam per subject, which would be created centrally by a government office, then every student would be ranked fairly, and there would be no need for SATs.

Can anyone tell me why this isn�t a good idea?