Essay Test Grading Unfair: Professors

It was revealed that many professors who scored college entrance writing exams said that the test was unfairly scored.

According to a survey conducted by Hwang Seung-yeon, a sociology professor belonging to the social research center of Kyung Hee University, from December 27-31, 2006, targeting 291 college professors of major universities in Seoul and national universities in local areas, 129 professors, 44.3 percent, replied that, “The writing test was not fairly and coherently scored.”

Only 78 professors (26.8 percent) responded that the writing test was fairly scored, and 83 professors (28.5 percent) were neutral on the same question. It was also revealed that professors of the department of science and engineering expressed more doubt on the credibility of the test (51.0 percent) than humanity and social science professors (38.2 percent).

Out of 291 respondents, 219 professors (75 percent) have experience scoring the writing test.

In addition to this, in response to the question, “Do you think the current type of writing test is suitable for the current curriculum of high schools?” 48.8 percent said, “No,” and 30.4 percent said, “Yes.”

However, in regard to the question, asking “Do you think the current type of writing test helps the school admission officials selecting excellent students?” 40.1 percent said, “No,” and 38.8 percent said, “Yes.” There was a relatively little difference.

In response to the question asking the desirable methods in conducting the college entrance examination, 65.6 percent replied that it should be determined by schools individual admission policies; 13.1 percent responded that the schools select students on the basis of writing skills, college entrance exam results, and high school grades; 12.0 percent responded that college entrance exam results and high school grades should be used as barometers for college entrance; 6.2 percent responded that only college entrance exam results and 1.0 percent responded that only high school grades should be used.

Hwang, who conducted this survey said, “In fact, I am not sure that we, as raters, can successfully write essays on topics given to students,” adding, “I am also suspicious that my colleagues who spend only two or three hours in finishing scoring gave a correct score to students.”

Hwang stressed, “We need supplementary measures for the writing test. For example, rather than scoring the writing test, the admission officials may use it as just criteria in deciding students’ admission. It would be also a good idea to allow the school authorities to modify the test types in accordance with the characteristics of each department.”

gaea@donga.com