9.6 Points Increase for Liberal Arts and 4.8 Points Increase for Science Division

The average score for the 2004 Academic Adaptability Test unexpectedly increased by 9.6 points for students in the liberal arts division and 4.8 points for students in the science division. The sample scoring performed immediately after the test estimated an average 4.8 points increase for liberal arts students and a 0.7 decrease for its counterpart.

The top 50 percentage students’ average score –-eligible points to apply for a four-year college –increased by 7.6 points for liberal arts students and 1.3 points for science students, compared to last year’s results.

On the other hand, the lowest limit for the first tier group (students within the top four percentage points) dropped to 348 points and to 361 points –- an individual decrease of three and four points for the liberal arts and science division, respectively. For the second tier group (students within the top 11 percentage points), the lowest score recorded were 329 points (liberal arts students) and 347 points (science students), also decreasing by one point for liberal arts students and three points for science students. The lowest score below the third tier group – in pre-advanced and intermediate students – showed an increase.

It is expected that college entrance competition rates for students belonging to the pre-advanced and intermediate groups will be stiff, as the record distribution chart shows an “onion” shape, which means decreased points for top students and increased points of intermediate-level groups. On December 2, the Korea Institution of Curriculum and Evaluation announced the result of the Academic Adaptability Test and distributed the record report to the 642,583 students.

With the original point measurement, the average score for all test applicants was 216.5 points and 239.1 points for the liberal arts and the science division students, respectively. As the average points for the students within the 50 percent group in liberal arts and science division showed 273.1 points and 299.1 points respectively, the liberal arts students showed a better performance than the students in the science division in terms of a record increase. This tendency was caused by the two-group students’ difference in performance for each part. The liberal arts students’ average score in the science study section decreased by 11.4 points while increased by 6.6 points in the mathematics study section, a 5.1 points increase in the social studies section, and a 7.4 points increase in the foreign language section. Meanwhile, students in the science division had a decrease of 10.7 points and 0.6 points in the science studies and social studies respectively, but showed a comparatively lower increase in the mathematics and foreign language sections with 6.8 points and 5.8 points, respectively.

The average record of the top 50 percent among the students who tried the test a second time this year showed a better performance than the students in their 3rd year at high school. Their average scores were 13.6 points and 18.1 points higher in the liberal arts and the science division respectively than the 3rd year high school applicants. This trend will be advantageous for the second trials in the college entrance competition as usual.

The cumulative record distribution chart that enables each student to know his or her ranking among all applicants has not been revealed this year unlike the practice last year.

Following the enrollment of the accepted students in the occasional recruitment of the second semester this December 9-10, the 199 four-year colleges will take the students’ applications for regular recruitment from December 10 to 15 and start their recruitment process on December 16 and continue until February 5, dividing the period into three terms in “Ga,” “Na,” and “Da.”

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com