66 students get perfect exam scores

The average score on the 2001 scholastic aptitude exam rose 27.6 points this year, and 66 high school students scored a perfect 400 on the test. The higher results led to a rise in cut-off levels for university acceptance and also increased competition, which is expected to lead to greater confusion among students when choosing universities.

The number of students scoring above 390 points increased 19-fold to 7,941 from 412 last year, while the number of students scoring above 380 rose five-fold to 35,141. For the first time, the number of students scoring above 300 surpassed the 300,000 mark, reaching 383,069. As a result, the cut-off mark for top and middle tier universities has risen considerably.

As there is even a possibility that some universities could reject students with perfect scores, selecting schools is expected to be very difficult. The Korean Institute of Curriculum Evaluation announced that the average score among the 850,305 exam takers was 277.2 (roughly 69.3 percent), 27.6 points higher than last year.