A new type of killer question appears… The private education market is already preparing

Amid analysis that the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which was held on the 16th, is so difficult that it is ‘unsatisfactory’, in fact, despite the educational authorities’ exclusion policy, ‘killer questions’ (extremely difficult questions) were actually asked, or a new type of killer. There have been repeated criticisms that questions have appeared. Education and entrance examination experts agree that it is difficult to expect the effect of reducing private education, which was the purpose of excluding killer questions in the first place. The question that is currently controversial as the killer question is number 22 of the subjective short answer type in the mathematics common subject. It is a question asking whether it is possible to find a cubic function that satisfies the conditions using differential calculus, and even the entrance examination industry claims that it is a problem outside of the high school curriculum. Lim Seong-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, pointed out, “It may deviate from the definition of a killer question suggested by the Ministry of Education, but from the examinee’s perspective, it may have felt like a killer question because it was a question they had rarely encountered.” An entrance exam expert said, “If this problem is not a killer question, it is questionable what the scope of the killer question that education authorities say is.” In fact, according to the results of EBSi, a website for high school students operated by Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), which analyzed the self-filled answers of over 130,000 people up to this day, the incorrect answer rate for math question 22 reached 98.5%. In fact, some point out that a new type of killer question has emerged. Yoo Seong-ryong, head of ST Unitas Education Research Institute, said, “Education authorities claim that they have eliminated the killer questions, but from the examinee’s perspective, a large number of questions similar to the killer questions, such as new types, have been asked.” He added, “In the first place, the period for students to adapt to the test questions according to the new policy was I had to give it. “It was an expected confusion that occurred when the new policy was announced just five months before the CSAT,” he said. CEO Lim Seong-ho also said, “Couldn’t the new difficult types that test takers face be seen as ‘modified killer questions’?” Accordingly, contrary to the expectations of the government, which promoted the exclusion of killer questions as a measure to reduce private education, many predict that it will be difficult to expect the effect. Koo Bon-chang, head of the Policy Alternative Research Institute for a World Without Worries About Private Education, said, “It was nonsense to reduce private education by excluding killer questions while leaving fundamental problems such as queue evaluation and university ranking intact,” and added, “(Private education) products to prepare for killer questions.” “Instead of disappearing, products to prepare for new types of college entrance exams will be created,” he said. Director Yoo Seong-ryong also said, “High school students who are exposed to new types of exams or students who are retaking the exam have no choice but to seek private education out of anxiety. “Academies are probably already analyzing the types of questions on this year’s CSAT and creating similar questions,” he said. Reporter Park Go-eun [email protected]