‘Ip-si-hanpa’ - Examination Hell.........Seoul Searcher
• Craig Branch

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During November we experience ‘ip-si hanpa’, or ‘the entrance exam cold wave’, when high school students take their College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).
I’m sure most of us who’ve crammed for tests, burned the midnight oil at University, or can remember back to our high school days, just how excruciating exams can be.

For one day in the year, the whole of Korean society makes a monumental fuss.
To delay traffic congestion, commuters are advised to arrive at work one hour later than usual. Should any students have difficulty in getting to their designated location, emergency vehicles are on hand to help them get there in time.
During the language dictation sections (one in the morning, one in the afternoon), all means of transportation, buses, trains, taxis etc, must slow down near the exam sites, and of course, ‘honking’ is prohibited. Aircraft takeoff and landing times are rescheduled, and even the military prohibits rifle shooting drills and manouevres in areas within 6-19km of the examination sites.

For this one day of the year, the whole country pulls out all the stops to ensure that the students get to the test site on time. After all, the CSAT will determine which university they can enter, and ultimately what position they’ll fill in Korean society in the future.

It’s common to see enthusiastic mothers praying at the gates of high schools, accompanied by over-zealous high school juniors cheering, singing, and chanting comforting words of encouragement to the examinees. Traders also make a nice profit from all the good luck charms that are snapped up, alongside the amulets that are worn to prevent the students from coming to harm.

This year, 675,000 students and repeat examinees took the test at 878 locations nationwide, and competition is as fierce as ever to gain entrance into the elite universities.

Universities in Korea select freshmen on the basis of their CSAT scores, high school grades and interviews, with the CSAT score taking the highest priority. In a deeply conservative society, where Confuciusism still plays a major part in modern life, a university degree is considered a symbol of status as well as a requirement for jobs with ‘chaebol’, or family owned conglomerate (Hyundai, Samsung, LG, etc). Such is the importance of the test that almost the entire nation girds itself for this annual ritual.

However, it is no wonder that the failure of an examinee is considered a disaster for his or her family. Parents spend way beyond their means to send their children to extra lessons at a ‘hagwon’, which is a private teaching institute where they’ll study the core subjects of the CSAT.
For most students in their final year, they can expect to study for at least 12 hours per day. The first lesson will begin at 730am, with the last one in the regular timetable finishing at 530pm. They can then choose whether to go to a private institute until the small hours of the morning, or go to public or private study rooms, similar to those found in a library.
I know of one student who takes his first class (an internet cyber-lesson) at 5 am! Simply unheard of in Western society. Unfortunately, these tales are commonplace in Korea, and every year we hear of tragic stories where students resort to drastic measures.

Tragically, for one 18 year old girl in Ulsan, a city in the south of the peninsula, it was all too much for her, and she took her own life, such was the pressure on her young shoulders. She had heard media reports that predicted the average score would significantly rise while her own performance remained more or less the same. The timing of the event couldn’t have come at a worse time as the Korean Institute of Curriculum Evaluation ( KICE) was to announce the average score for each district through sample scoring on the same day.

Sadly, the state agency responsible for writing and grading the test announced that the average score would slightly fall, not rise, after scoring 40,000 sample papers from across the country.
The Korean government is coming under severe pressure from civic groups, parents, teachers, and students themselves to change this outdated practice. The state has to find ways to free their young generations from a notoriously inefficient education system that focuses on one solitary entrance examinations that often turns out to be a ruthless process of elimination rather than a true test of the ability of individual students.

Soon Korea will hold elections to see who will take over from President Kim Dae- Jung, and worryingly none of the prospective candidates are placing education high on their agenda. It is disturbing that in spite the paramount role education plays in the development of this nation and society, that it is failing to draw the attention of candidates and voters in the ongoing election campaigns.

President Kim has replaced the education minister no less than seven times during his five-year tenure, and he has failed to improve the standards. Whoever is elected in December must carry on the crucial burden of improving the college admission system that holds the key to providing a better education to the people, but until then ‘ip-si hanpa’ will remain an unwelcome guest every November.

© Craig Branch 2002
Craig is originally from Glasgow, Scotland. He has lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea for 3 years.
email: branchf9@yahoo.co.uk

*Held over from '02

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