Posted March. 31, 2003 22:25,
The year 2004 College Scholastic Ability Test, or CSAT, will maintain the same level of difficulty as last year`s, according to the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation. And scores will be marked without decimal points so as to address the controversy on fairness.
KICE released on March 31 the action plans for year 2004 CSAT and said it will receive applications from Aug. 27 through Sept. 16 for the test scheduled for Nov. 5.
▽ Adjustment in Allocation of Scores
˝We will maintain about the same level of difficulty as those held over the last two or three years,˝said Lee Jong-seung, director at the institute. ˝Since we view last year`s test as a success, we do not intend to change the level.˝
Given the fact that the average score dropped 66.8 points and 3.6 points respectively in 2001 and last year among top 50% ranking students, however, students might feel that questions are more difficult than they expect.
The institute also said that it would not allocate decimal points to inquiries beginning this year to avoid any controversy on fairness of marking. In the language section, therefore, 1, 2 and 3-points questions will replace 1.8, 2 and 2.2-points ones. In the social science and natural science section, there will be 1 and 2-points questions instead of 1, 1.5 and 2-points ones.
▽ Early Release of Estimated Average
KICE plans to mark some 6.2% of answer sheets, covering about 42,000 students, on the day of the test to offer the estimated average.
To help students grow familiar with patterns of inquires, it will conduct a mocking test twice on June 11 and Sept. 2. After the tests, 32 high school teachers will review the results and adjust the level of difficulty if necessary.
▽ Reactions from High Schools
In response to the announcement, high schools are now considering placing more focus on language subjects since the new marking system will widen the gap between correct and incorrect answers.
Some raise concern that the larger gap could lead to booming private lessons of language subjects.
˝Students in midrange and bottom-end groups will face some disadvantages because of the gap,˝ said Yu Su-yeol, teacher at Danguk High School in Seoul. ˝We were already considering beefing up the Korean language subject, since inquires began to require advanced logical comprehension.˝
˝Top-end students will also feel more burden about making a mistake because one wrong answer makes more difference,˝ said Kim Young-il, owner of Jungang Private Institute. ˝Students will need to take many mock tests so that they can adjust themselves better.˝
Colleges are also rushing to review the current evaluation system since more students will likely end up with the same scores.
˝It is more likely that the school will see many ties at the end of the evaluation process,˝ said Lee Gi-tae, an administration manager at Kyunghee University. ˝We have set criteria for such cases by deciding where to put priorities.˝