The BIG DAY: the Korean College Entrance Exam By Peter Lee

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What am I talking about? Every year, in November, students in their 12th grade in high schools take a test called the 수능 or College Scholastic Ability Test in English This year it was November 13th

When Does the Test Start? The test starts at 9 AM Ends at about 6 PM

9 hours Evening newspaper publishes questions/answers Kids who don’t do well usually study for 1 more year

Where Did This Test Take Place? In thousands of high schools in Korea

What’s so Special About that Day? It’s a day basically reserved for the 590,000 high school seniors Businesses/Stock Market opens one hour later Other students don’t go to school During listening, airplanes can’t leave/land in Korea

Korea Electric Power Corp. has 4,000 members to ensure that there isn’t a power shortage

Koreans want test to be fair The 400 teachers who make test are isolated for weeks• Surrounded by police• No TV/Internet/monitored phone calls

Hype Before the Test Newspapers/TV shows publish which foods are good for increasing concentration and boosting memory For example, seaweed soup (

미역국 ) is considered by some TV shows bad

There are business for this day All they do is give parents tips

Many religious parents (Christian/Buddhist) go to temples Pray for countless hours

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Why Is The Test Important?

>80% of high school seniors plan to go to college

This test could influence salary 30 years later

Has become less important over the years Gvmt./Education officials want it to be more Western

Social importance Many people don’t think college is important, but can’t fight social pressure

It’s a objective and fair way to see who studied more

Opportunity for everyone of all social statuses to rise

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How Does It Make Me Feel?

Sad Study countless hours, pay thousands of dollars for one day

Rote memorization isn’t life Many Koreans get into Ivy Leagues, but many have highest dropout rate

Even though Korea boasts some of the best students, they are criticized• Don’t have creativity, critical thinking, and comprehensive understanding of a subject

• Also criticized for having less maturity Many students commit suicide when test results come out• Korea has #1 suicide rate (24/100,000 people) in the OECD

Citations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Scholastic_Ability_Test http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122644964013219173.html?mod=google

news_wsj http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2008/november/South-

Korea-Holds-its-Breath-As-Students-Take-Entrance-Exam.html http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2008/11/181_30122.htm

l http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/nam-round-table/1390/s-korea-a-re

public-of-suicide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oecd http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=3

90145 http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-08/2008-08-21-voa42.cf

m http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/52955/Cram-School-

Confidential:-Korean-Students-Becoming-Worlds-Best http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/top(57).jpg http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/51750146.jpg?

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http://www.hawcc.hawaii.edu/nursing/RNKorean_Images07/brown-seaweed-soup-070630.jpg