Standard Score in the Clouds, No Entry Consultation for a Month

“What is my score?” J (18 years old from Mok-dong, Seoul), who desires to enter the department of cultural science, is thinking a great deal about whether to apply for regular registration or to apply downward in the second term occasional recruitment. J said worryingly, “I don’t know if I can apply for the university of my choice during the regular registration. My foreign language score fell by 10 points from the last mock exam.”

However, her form tutor consoled her, saying, “If the average score of foreign language falls, you can achieve a good standard score.” He added, “You cannot apply for the regular registration if you are accepted on the occasional recruitment. So, don’t make a hasty conclusion.”

“Conditional pass candidates” of the second term occasional recruitment, who need to satisfy the national university entry exam’s minimum scholastic ability standard on specific parts, are ill at ease because they too cannot determine the rank of each part.

Park, who attends Kyungbok High School, was accepted by Kyunghee University College of Oriental Medicine through occasional recruitment. However, he is thinking of applying for the regular registration because he is unsure whether he can achieve the minimum scholastic ability standard, the first rank, in two out of the three parts: Mathematics, Foreign Language, and Science.

Nam (18 years old from Sinjung, Seoul), who passed the second term on demand registration conditionally, said, “The Mathematics’ form ‘ga’ was hard, resulting in a 20-point drop from the mock exam. I cannot ease my mind.”

Y (18 years old from Sinjung, Seoul) from A High School, Seoul said, “A specific result is necessary to prepare for the oral interview of each university and selection. Until then, nothing can be done for sure.”

“No standard,” say teachers. At some schools, endless phone calls rang from parents asking for their children’s rank.

However, teachers could only reply, “The original score will be different than the standard score, thus no answers can be given right now.”

Teacher Jeonn In-gil of Kyungbok High School, Seoul sighed, “It is all darkness before the scores come out. Past entry information with the original score is useless.”

Sangmoon High School’s teacher, Jo Ju-whan, said, “Entry consulting is tricky. All we can advise is to prepare oral interviews according to each university’s principle.”

Many full-score students are expected for some sections of the exam. Some subjects in Sociology were so easy that many students are expected to receive full mark in the original score, and one wrong question will result in being classed in the third rank.

This is because when changing to the standard score, the higher the total average score, although the student may have received a full mark in original score, his or her standard score decreases and same score is treated as same rank.

At a school in Seoul, after a mock grading, all six students in a class who chose Ethics received the full mark of 50.

A girls’ school in Seoul had 20 students who obtained the full points in Korean Geography out of 299, however, there was only one in Social Culture out of 334. Their average was 40.72 and 36.17 respectively, a four point difference.

A student commented, “I was really happy to receive the full mark, however, seeing there were a lot like me, I got worried.”

Na-Yeon Lee Hyo-Lim Son larosa@donga.com aryssong@donga.com