kimchi corner

D-DAY FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS

Today nearly 600,000 high school seniors and graduates took the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test, which began at 8:40 a.m.and lasted until 6:15 p.m. The once-a-year test is truly a life-changing matter because the outcome of the test is used to determine which university a student may attend or whether or not he will attend university at all.

Students spend many late nights in study rooms cramming for this test. The test has five parts including three required subjects:mathematics, Korean and English. Students also test over two optional subjects from social science, natural sciences, occupational studies, optional tests in a second foreign language or Chinese characters.

To help students reach the testing centers on time, the government set the starting time for work at all government offices and private firms at 10 a.m., an hour later than the usual time. In addition, over 10,000 police were stationed near test centers, and subway stations throughout the country had 7,000 volunteers available to help students get to the venues on time.

Planes were banned from taking off or landing for two brief periods in the morning and afternoon to prevent the noise from distracting students during the listening comprehension test, and honking car horns was prohibited. The Defense Ministry also halted all military drills during test hours.

On this day, everyone it seemed was pulling for the students. All public schools were cancelled. Radio stations played songs especially to cheer the students. Bakeries sold special breads and decorated cakes. Mothers went to early prayer services, and then many stood outside the test center gates to offer their children special lunches and to wish them success. Subway stops that are usually annouced via tape recording were today personally annouced by the conductor to let students know which testing center was at a particular stop.

Students will be notified of their CSAT scores on Dec. 13.

posted by Seoul Man @ 8:47 PM