Reporting Score Distributions for Years 11 and 12

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced yesterday that it has ordered 292 high schools to report the distribution results of their mid-terms and final exams as a means of preventing scoring exaggeration.

It advised several high schools to utilize questions so that around 15 percent of the class will receive top grades or an average subject score of 70 to 75 points, the metropolitan and city common standard, in the case for school years 11 and 12, which are unaffected by the year nine school reporting system.

An official of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said, “The scores in year 10 will be calculated according to the year nine school reporting system. However, as years 11 and 12 are calculated by absolute grading, we will review whether easy exam questions will be given to increase the scores.” He added, “We plan to manage year 10 scores separately as the students are preparing for the 2008 university entrance exam, when the relative importance of school grades increases.”

He added, “Because there might be no first level achievers given the many students who receive perfect marks in the year 10 mid-terms and final exams, we are planning to receive the first semester final exam results first. To increase the school reporting reliability, we will act accordingly after analyzing the exam results.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education advised to publicize the grading standard and exam questions on the school’s homepage and is planning to enforce it from next year.

Furthermore, it plans to activate the currently irregularly-run scholastic achievement management committee to operate more than twice per quarter and to invite the responsible school inspector to the committee whenever there are any absurdities in the scores.

syroh@donga.com