South Korea’s annual College Scholastic Ability Test, or Suneung, took place on Thursday, witnessing a record number of retakers, drawn by the prospect of increased medical school enrollment quotas next year.

With the highest number of retakers in 21 years, a total of 522,670 students, including high school seniors and graduates, were registered to take the state-administered Suneung, up 18,082 from last year.

While the proportion of graduates was 0.7 percentage points lower than the previous year due to a significant increase in the number of current students relative to graduates, the number of graduate test takers was the highest in 21 years at 184,317.

The surge in retakers is attributed to an anticipated rise in medical school admissions next year, with 39 medical schools across the country set to accept 4,610 students, up by 1,497 from this year.

This expansion, introduced by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration to address a nationwide shortage of doctors, aims to increase medical school slots by approximately 2,000 annually over the next five years.

Educational experts believe the policy shift has driven a significant number of “jaesoo” students -- those who have graduated but are reattempting the test through private academies or self-study -- to aim for medical school placements. Students already enrolled in other universities are also among the hopefuls, as they anticipate stiffer competition and likely more challenging test questions designed to distinguish top-performing candidates.

As the Suneung test commenced at 8:10 a.m. across 1,282 exam sites nationwide, government authorities implemented noise control measures in surrounding areas to maintain an ideal testing environment. The exam, which runs until 5:45 p.m., is one of South Korea’s most critical academic events, given the emphasis on securing a spot at prestigious universities for future career prospects.

In an effort to maintain equitable standards, this year’s exam followed the Ministry of Education’s directive to exclude so-called “killer questions” -- extremely challenging problems covering material outside standard public education content. Instead, the CSAT question-setting committee aimed to assess students’ abilities using only material from public education.

“We made sure the exam could differentiate the levels of students simply using material covered by public education,” said Choe Joung-chul, head of the CSAT question-setting committee and a professor at Dongguk University, at a press briefing.

Last year’s Suneung, despite the absence of killer questions, was rated as a “hard Suneung” across its Korean language, math and English sections, with only one student achieving a perfect score. This year’s exam is expected to retain its challenging reputation, especially with the heightened stakes in the medical school admissions race.

As thousands of students finalized their preparations, education officials emphasized that this year’s Suneung must balance fair assessment and the need to differentiate student performance.