Transition Committee Reveals Revised Score System

The grading system for the Korean national college entrance exam will undergo some changes to reveal the specifics of the students’ scores including the percentile level, original and converted scores in addition to showing their grades in each subject section, beginning next year.

After mounting criticisms by universities regarding the current grading system, the presidential transition committee is set to announce the finalized version of complementary measures today to minimize the confusion students and parents face as they get ready for the winter test this year.

An official from the committee said on Monday, “We are seeing unnecessary controversies surrounding the current grading system. Therefore, we decided to apply the changes immediately for those who will take the test for next year’s entrance."

The gist of the revision is to provide the percentile level, original and converted scores of a student as well as their status in the nine-grade system for each subject section.

The current system has been under fire for its limit in giving detailed information on students` test result, which makes it difficult for teachers to give application guides. It also has been pointed out as having failed to help universities evaluate students` individual academic capacity.

Resembling the previous system that existed until the end of 2007, the revision, which plans to indicate the percentile level and the original score, is expected to take some burden off the applicants in finding the right school for their application.

Although the committee had originally planned to confirm the roadmap for granting universities autonomy in selecting their students and improving the college entrance exam around early February, it decided to move up the date as the confusion among the applicants and their parents grew day by day.

It has been also reported that the committee will soon announce a three-step roadmap in giving autonomy to universities in selecting their students, designed by President-elect Lee Myung-bak. The roadmap begins by allowing universities to decide how much weight they will put on students’ high school records in the college exam, and moves on to reducing the number of exam subjects and finally ends with granting complete freedom to universities in admission procedures.

mhpark@donga.com