CSAT Scores Rises by 4.8 Points for Humanities Students

The sample scoring of this year’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) showed that the average score of humanities students is likely to rise by approximately five points while that of natural science students is likely to be the same or drop slightly compared to that of last year.

Experts pointed out that students failed to balance their studies as average scores for mathematics and English rose dramatically while that of science dropped about 10 points.

The results of some high schools’ provisional marking also indicates that students in their final year of high school did worse while repeating students did better on the trial exam.

Lee Jong-Seong, chairman of the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation (KICE), announced the sample score results of 43,687 Seoul and Gyeonggi Province examinees’ (6.5 percent) answer sheets yesterday at the Central Government Complex.

Out of 400 points, the average scores turned out to be, respectively, 211.7 points, 233.6 points, and 160.8 points for humanities students, natural science students, and art and sport students. The result also indicates that the score rose by 4.8 points for humanities students but scores declined by 0.7 point and by 0.5 point for natural science students, and art and sports students, respectively.

The average scores of the top 50 percent who has a place in a four-year university are 269 points for humanities students (up 3.5 points), 296 for natural science students (down 1.8 points) and 204.3 for art and sport students (down 3.3 points).

If we look at the average score of each section, with the numbers in brackets being the average dropped scores compared to those of last year, the average scores of Koreans are, respectively, 68.2 (-0.6), 71 (-1.4) and 32.3 (+3) for humanities students, natural science students and art and sport students. Mathematics scores were respectively, 32.3 (+3) and 45.1 (+5.7) for humanities students and natural science students. Sociology scores were respectively, 16.7 (―10.5) and 39.4 (―9.8) for humanities students and natural science students. Science scores were respectively, 16.7 (―10.5) and 39.4 (―9.8) for humanities students and natural science students. Finally, English scores were respectively, 50.8 (+7.4) and 55.3 (+6.8) for humanities students and natural science students.

The sample scores of KICE have been about ± 3 point deviation.

“The difficulty of the CSAT turned out to be as they intended,” KICE says.

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com