Credibility of CSAT Faces Crisis

For the first time in the history of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), the Korean Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation (KICE) admitted that a controversial problem on the 2004 state college entrance exam has two correct answers. This is the first time education authorities have acknowledged making two answers mistakenly on one question since the first administration of the first state-run college entrance exam.

“After gathering opinions from various academies and KICE advisors, we decided to acknowledge the fifth answer as correct, along with the original third answer for the 17th question in the Korean language section,`` KICE president Lee Jong-seung said Monday in a press conference at Central Government Complex, downtown Seoul.

Two points are allotted to the question and some 70 percent of examinees chose the fifth answer while only 15 percent selected the third answer, the KICE official said.

The outcome deals a serious blow to the credibility of the CSAT, as remarking and reprocessing the some-630,000 results is now inevitable. Students are also now faced with a great deal of confusion in choosing their college preferences as the reliability of the KICE’s sample score results released on November 6 also dropped significantly.

In addition, the announcement is likely to draw a strong backlash from students who chose the third answer. The controversy is expected to deepen as demands for reviewing other questions on suspicion of possible errors and multiple answers are pouring in.

Lee, however, made it clear on the day that “Every other question which received criticism was scrutinized carefully by corresponding experts and the original answers turned out to be valid in each case.”

Regarding possible delays for university admission procedures due to reassessing, Lee asserted, “As the grading of the CSATs is almost completed and changing the fifth answer correct is not very difficult to do, all test takers will receive their scores on December 2 as planned.”

“I will seek ways to improve the college entrance test and will allow a certain period of time in the future to review controversial questions of the CSAT by related professionals,” Lee said.

“The CSAT has now lost some of its credibility, but you should be reminded of our honest efforts to resolve the problems. We believe the utmost important thing is to resolve confronted obstacles. We will then take the consequences of our actions,” Lee added.

In this regard, the Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development said, “We will soon announce our policy publicly on the case after reviewing the contexts of the mistake and the locus of responsibility.”

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com