KSAT Grade, None over 380 This Year Compared to 36 Last Year

The highest grades of the Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test this year is likely to plunge down to 360-370.

According to the estimated grades of the high school students, the high grade students have 30-40 lowered grade than last year and the grade of middle graders has dropped by 50 points.

Students who have over 380, except for the students of science high schools, Foreign Language high schools, and distinguished schools having competitive admission system, were rarely found, compared that 66 students had perfect score last year. However, the range of plunge may be greater than the estimation since many disappointed students did not present their estimated grades.

36 students of A science high school had perfect score last year but none this year. And only 6 out of the total examinees earn their grade over 370 and the average of the student lowered by 35 points.

45 students of B high school had over 380 last year but the school finds no student in the Humanities over 350 this year and only 12 student in the Natural Science made over 350.

SeoHyun High School in Bundang, Kyonggi, will have an emergency meeting to prepare the consultative material for application, considering the weights of test areas. Prep Educational Organizations carefully anticipated that ``students having over 365 may apply to popular departments of Seoul National University and the student who have 360 or above are probably to admitted to higher departments of Yonsei and Korea University.`` 360 and above may be classified as the highest, 350 as high, and 290-310 as a middle class.

sungchul@donga.com