SNU Won’t Consider Art, Physical Education

It was revealed on May 3 that Seoul National University (SNU) has decided not to consider the academic record of high school students in artistic and physical education fields such as music, fine arts, and physical exercise for their 2005 entrance examination.

According to SNU’s 2005 entrance examination guide, SNU will reflect the students’ ranking record for the normal courses of study, but as to the artistic and physical education courses, they have decided to adopt the system that in case of a student having failed to reach a certain level of score, the student receives a cut in marks.

In details, SNU will not give a demerit mark for an A or B, but as for C, D, and F grades, they will subtract one, two and three points respectively when they reflect the school record of artistic and physical exercise courses. This system will be adopted starting from the occasional collection this fall. Due to the inflated academic scores of almost every high school, SNU has decided virtually not to reflect the scores of artistic and physical exercise fields in which most students receive an A or B no matter what their performances turn out to be. Until 2004, SNU has applied the same rule to art and physical exercise courses.

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com