Korean Test Culture - Too Unique
Written by Meenaa on Sunday, November 16th, 2008
Korean Test Culture - Too Unique
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Not only to foreigners who are unfamiliar with Korea but those who are already accustomed to the country think the state-administered college entrance exam is a unique cultural experience that they can hardly understand or witness in other nations.
Company workers and civil servants were supposed to report to work one hour later than usual to ease traffic jams which could disturb test takers. Drivers were restrained from honking their horns when passing by schools and aircraft had to delay landing and take-off during Korean and English listening tests.
The government mobilized all measures to support university hopefuls Thursday. To help transport test takers and secure the safety of exam places, some 14,000 policemen were positioned with 4,200 motorcycles and emergency vehicles. The National Emergency Rescuers were also called in to help provide transportation for test takers in their ambulances.
“It is a day of supreme importance to a Korean person’s academic life. It’s pressure filled and determines one’s future path, which some see as unfair. Many other countries spread out final exams over a week or two so that a person’s testing is not dependent on one day,’’ said Gavin Farrell, a Canadian living in Seoul.
“I think Korea has valued tests from long long time ago. For example, `Gwageo’ or traditional national civil service exam decided one’s life. In Korea, however, once students get in universities, it is easy to graduate,’’ he added.
Some 590,000 high school seniors and graduates took the College Scholastic Ability Test at nearly 1,000 schools across the nation starting at 8:40 a.m.
Many parents remained outside even after their children entered the test venue, some praying for their children’s success in the life-decision test. Temples and churches across the country were packed with mothers praying for their children.
“Korea has fascination with tangible results for scores, something countable. While American universities use a lot of non-countable data, Korean universities use non-quantifiable data such as letters from teachers, students essay and personal resume,’’ said Rob Dickey, an American professor of Gyeongju University. “The test culture here overpowers all other aspects of child life. They don’t have a chance to build a resume because they spend all the time for the test so that affects everything about students and their future lives.’’
The professor, who has been here for 14 years, said that the state exam is overestimated and unfairly decides the future of an individual.
“We, foreigners, can’t imagine deciding all our life at age 17, but the test dictates which university I go to, which then dictates my adult opportunities because everything comes down to one test day, one day in your life,’’ he said. “It is chicken and egg problem; Schools rate the test because students have no other lives and students have no other lives because of the test.’’
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
11-13-2008
The Korea Times
