South Korean Exam Chief Resigns Amid English Test Criticism
Oh Seung-geol, head of the South Korean college entrance exam (Suneung), has resigned following criticism regarding the English section's difficulty. Mr. Oh acknowledged the criticism, stating that the difficulty of questions was "inappropriate" and the test "fell short" despite multiple editing rounds.
Details of the English Section
The English portion of theung is known for its challenging nature. Critics described some questions as "insane." Among the questions cited for their difficulty were one on Immanuel Kant's philosophy of law and another involving gaming terminology.
One specific question, valued at three points, required students to place a sentence within a given paragraph. The sentence in question was: "The difference is that the action in the game world can only be explored through the virtual bodily space of the avatar." The paragraph it belonged to discussed the relationship between a video game's internal reality and the player's interaction through an avatar. This passage was later identified as an excerpt from "Game Feel," a game design guide by Steve Swink, reportedly taken out of its original context.
Impact and Reactions
Students are allocated 70 minutes to complete 45 questions in the English section. This year, just over 3% of test-takers achieved the highest grade in English, a decrease from 6% in the previous year.
Student Im Na-hye from Hanyeong High School reported that understanding the texts was tricky and differentiating between similar answer options was difficult. Online forums, such as Reddit, featured users criticizing the wording of several questions, describing it as "fancy smart talking" or "awful writing."
English language professor Jung Chae-kwan, who previously worked at the institution administering the Suneung, characterized the test's texts as "maddeningly confusing" rather than simply tough. He argued that this complexity made the material less effective for actual education, leading teachers to focus on "test-taking hacks" over teaching English.
Conversely, Kim Soo-yeon, an English literature professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, stated that the test effectively measures students' reading comprehension and their preparedness for university-level material. She noted that the selected passages feature "some degree of specialisation" to assess these skills.