South Korea recently confirmed the final plans for the 2017 college entrance exam, known here as Suneung, the most notable of which was to change the current curved grading system to a score-based “absolute grading” system for English.

Experts say changes applied to English, one of the major Suneung subjects, are likely to affect the admission process and private education market in the country.

The annual exam is conducted in November and graded on a nine-level system.

The new policy is likely to spark grade inflation for English. According to education firm Uway, roughly one-third of students who took last year’s exam would get the top two grades under the new system, and 23.3 percent would get the top grade.

In order to buffer the impact of the 2017 exam, English tests for this year and next year’s Suneung are likely to be easy as well, said Lee Man-gi, an official from Uway.

Overall, Lee said making the Suneung English section easier is unlikely to bring the Education Ministry‘s desired effects of reducing private education spending.

“With Suneung English failing to determine which students actually excel in the subject, the importance of other key subjects ― math and Korean language ― will increase,” he said, raising concerns of the “balloon effect.”

He also said that universities will struggle to find an alternative method to evaluate students’ English skills, such as by having a separate test, which may create a new private education market.

Im Seong-ho, chief of Haneul Education, said international schools and foreign language schools are likely to see waning popularity due to the changes. He raised concerns that the frequent overhaul of the Suneung would cause confusion for students, pointing out that the Education Ministry has forewarned of major changes over the next five years.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)