2005 College Scholastic Ability Test to Retain the Present Structure

It is likely that the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in 2005, which the middle school 3rd graders at present are supposed to take, will be revised partly to reflect electives of the newly introduced 7th Educational Process while retaining the basic structure of the current test.

But the plan that has been proposed thus far to divide the current CSAT into two parts, namely, the test of basic subjects (CSAT I) and the test of profound subjects (CSAT II), is expected to face difficulty in its full introduction considering the facts that the general public has a sense of aversion to frequent changing of the test system, and that the 7th Educational Process has not been settled down yet.

Ministry of Education and Human Resources held a hearing yesterday at the grand hall of the Committee for Re-examining Disciplinary Action on Teachers, located in Samchung-Dong, Chongro-Gu, Seoul, to discuss `Tentatively Revised Plan for the 2005 College Scholastic Ability Test` with about 700 participants comprised of specialists in college entrance exam, high-school teachers and parents of students, and presented five tentative plans prepared by the Research Committee for Revision of College Scholastic Ability Test (Chairman Park Do-Sun, the dean of the Graduate School of Education at Korea University).

The Committee collected opinions raised in the hearing, and will submit two plans out of five to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources by the end of November. Ministry of Education and Human Resources will then finalize the plan for 2005 College Scholastic Ability Test by December.

The Committee presented that day △ two plans for conducting CSAT once, that is, `supplementation of the current CSAT (No.1)` and `selective test of single subject in the same educational area (No.2)` △ three plans for dividing CSAT into two parts, that is, `common test of basic subject + selective test of electives (No.3)`, `general scholastic ability test + test of selective subjects (No.4)` and `scholastic aptitude test + basic scholastic ability test (No.5)`.

``Frequent changing of test system will increase a burden for students.`` parents and teachers indicated at the hearing. ``It is least burdensome to choose Plan No. 1 that retains the present structure of test and reflects in part the characteristics of the 7th Educational Process.`` Thus, it is most likely that Plan No. 1 will be chosen.

Chairman Park Do-Sun said as well, ``Plan No. 1 and No. 3 were highly preferred among 5 plans at such meeting as the specialist councils.`` But university officials pointed out, ``The test of profound subjects (CSATII) should be introduced in order to test the scholastic ability of students objectively.``

The Plan No. 1, which supplements the current CSAT, is to let an examinee take tests on five areas--all the test in the areas of language, foreign language (English), social research and scientific research, and, in terms of mathematical area, the test of one type that the university demands among three types classified as A, B and C according to its degree of difficulty.

The Plan No. 3 is to divide CSAT into two parts so as for students to take the test of basic subjects (CSAT I) the they have learned over the first year of high school in the early part of the second year, while taking the test of profound electives (CSAT II) that they learned during the second and third year at the end of the third year in high-school.

The Committee stated that all five plans would be able to reduce controversies over the degree of difficulty the current fixed grade system can create through marking CSAT grades by class or the standard grade.

Meanwhile, the Committee also presented a suggestion for revitalizing vocational schools that the subjects of vocational areas be included in CSAT so that the students of vocation schools can have more chances to enter college.

Lee In-Chul inchul@donga.com