CSAT Shock for Successful Candidates of Occasional Registration

Seoul National University will announce the final successful candidates for occasional registration on December 5 and has noted that 177 (15.1 percent) of 1174 successful contestants for occasional registration would be omitted because they were behind on the minimum standards of academic ability as of December 3. 158 students (13.5 percent) failed because of their College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) score.

Hankuk University for Foreign Studies (HUFS) will announce their final successful candidates for occasional registration on December 4. HUFS rejected 337 (68 percent) of 554 preliminary from occasional registration for HUFS Frontier because they did not meet the minimum standards of academic ability.

Park Roh-ho, director of the admissions department of HUFS, said, “The minimum standard of academic ability was lowered from an overall second grade last year to an overall second grade for Korean and foreign languages and a section second grade for liberal arts, mathematics or foreign language and a section second grade in natural sciences. However, the rate of omission increased by 2.7 percent compared to last year.”

At Sungkyunkwan University, 272 students (27.2 percent) out of 1000 successful preliminary candidates for general registration were behind the minimum standard of academic ability. While the omission rate for liberal arts was only 2.5 percent, for science it was as much as 55 percent, meaning more than half of the students failed. Sungkyunkwan University requires a general second grade on the CSAT or a first grade in two subjects from language, mathematics, social science, foreign languages, liberal arts and natural sciences.

Ewha Womens University revealed on December 3, “We lowered the minimum standard of academic ability from a general second grade to a general third grade with certain subjects, such as natural science, requiring a first grade. However, similar to last year, 30 to 40 percent of preliminary successful candidates did not meet these requirements.”

High schools are having a difficult time guiding students in their applications, with students often shocked by failing to meet the minimum standards by one or two points and being omitted.

A teacher at K high school in Seoul, observed, “One student who was omitted in occasional registration by just one point burst into tears. I was so embarrassed to see.”

Jung Kyong-yong, a teacher at Pungmoon Girls High School, Seoul, remarked, “Students who were omitted from occasional registration are saying they would repeat next year,” and “It is hard to advise depressed students to apply lower standard universities than the one they tried.”

Regarding this, “The students omitted from occasional registration will be able to increase their chances of entering the university they want if they work out an application strategy, analyze their scores in each subject, examine their school performance documents, prepare an essay and interview thoroughly,” advised Kim Jung-woong, chief teacher for the third grade at Gujeong High School.

Hyo-Lim Son aryssong@donga.com