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CSAT difficulty 'appropriate,' subject selection 'advantages' minimized, says question-setting committee head

Published: 13 Nov. 2025, 09:57 Updated: 13 Nov. 2025, 16:34

Kim Chang-won, head of the question-setting committee for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), briefs press on the test at the government complex in Sejong on Nov. 13. [YONHAP]

This year’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was designed to maintain “appropriate difficulty” while aligning with the content and level of the high school curriculum, according to Kim Chang-won, head of the CSAT question-setting committee.

Speaking at a briefing held at the government complex in Sejong at 8:40 a.m. Thursday, just as the Korean section of the first testing period began, Kim said, “We focused on core and fundamental elements of the curriculum in order to support the normalization of high school education.”

He added that the committee “excluded questions that would favor students trained in private education to solve problems through rote techniques,” and instead aimed to ensure a balanced distribution of appropriately difficult questions that could differentiate students based solely on what is covered in the public school curriculum.

“In subjects with elective components, we calibrated the difficulty across different subject options to minimize any advantage or disadvantage based on subject selection,” he said.

The science, social studies and foreign language subjects are optional.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]