A bunch of high schoolers taking a test.
It's no surprise that Koreans are very stressed people. They have one of the highest suicide rates in the world, after all. Cultural pressure to succeed in life is enormous here. Much of the stress in a young Korean's life can be attributed to their third year of high school in early November. That is when they take the 대학수학능력시험 test, also known as the College Scholastic Ability Test or Suneung (수능). This eight-hour test (8:30am to 5:00 pm) tests the students on the following
- Korean reading, writing and speaking (90 minutes)
- Mathmetics (100 minutes)
- Type A: Math 1, Basic calculus and Statistics
- Type B: Math 1, Math 2, Geometry and Vector, Integral calculus and Statistics
- English reading, writing and speaking (70 minutes)
- Social Studies (select 2)
- Ethics & Thought, Ethics for Daily Life (62 minutes)
- Korean History, World History, East Asian History
- Korean Geography, World Geography
- Law and Politics, Economics, Society and Culture
- Sciences
- Physics 1, Chemistry 1, Biology 1, Earth Science 1
- Physics 2, Chemistry 2, Biology 2, Earth Science 2
- Vocational Education
- Agriculture (Understanding of Agriculture, Techniques in Basic Agriculture), Industry (Introduction to Industry, Basic Drafting), Commerce and Information (Commercial Economy, Principles of Accounting), Marine and Shipping (General Oceanography, Fishery and Shipping Information Processing), Household affairs and Business (Human Development, General Computers)
- Foreign language (40 minutes)
- Arabic, Chinese, Chinese Classics, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese (choose 1)
The questions are created by a team of 696 individuals, half of whom are college professors and the other half are high school teachers. They are under a strict NDA and are paid $300 a day for several weeks. Questions are checked and double checked to make sure they are suitable. Now, in America we have the ACT or SAT. Both are very important tests, though not as detailed and intense. However, a high ACT score does not always guarantee entry into a good university, and vice versa. Here in Korea, the CSAT is the number one indicator of which university you will be accepted to. Around 700,000 take the test every year, and around half of them will get a good enough score to be accepted in what is considered a "good" university. For this reason many Koreans call the CSAT the chance to make or break one's future. It will influence their education choices, their job prospects and even marriage. It is the single most important event in a teenager's educational career.
You could say preparation for this test begins at elementary school. No kidding. Every single one of my students knows exactly what the Suneung is. Parents and family plan their middle school and high school years, moving closer to the good schools and more importantly, good hagwons (private after-schools). These students leave their public schools at around 3pm, in which they turn right around and go to hagwons. There are over 70,000 hagwons in Korea at this time, 47% of those are high school specific. There is a korean law stipulating all hagwons must close at 10pm, though this is often ignored and many study until 11 or midnight each day. Raids on hagwons are a common occurrence to those who break the law, teaching past required times. Those who cannot afford hagwons go to gongbubangs, which are quiet study rooms where silence and privacy are taken extremely seriously.
The silver lining (though not much of one in my opinion) is how supportive the country is of these students. As mentioned, all businesses start an hour late as to clear up congestion as the students are headed towards the exam room. Even the Seoul Stock Exchange opens up later in the day. The electric companies place 4,000 workers on standby in case of a power outage.Taxi drivers are legally required to give free rides and police escorts are on standby to help get the students towards the test center. Female teachers are not allowed to wear high heels in the testing center or wear perfume. The entrance to the testing centers is filled with members of the community screaming and shouting in encouragement And of course, the temples are flooded by the parents and family of those praying for their child or family member's success.
I had a good discussion with my coteacher about the importance of this test in Korean culture. It started with me saying I felt it was good that the country was so supportive of the students on test day (regardless of whether the pressure should be there in the first place), but quickly delved into the history of the test and why Korea places so much importance on it. It was interesting to hear her, as an educator in Korea, so critical of the way things are and how she wishes she could change more.
It's an interesting contrast here. In America, I feel the government places too little significance on education. With the misguided disaster that was NCLB, funding woes and cultural impact of being educated. Over here in Korea, there's too much of an importance on education. Like America, there are still the same problems with instructional education and teaching to the test. But there are added problems; students are literally killing themselves over expectations in these grades. The life of the high schooler isn't filled with mischief, sports, movies, dating or having fun. From the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep, it's study study study. Does it work? Education in Korea is rated as one of the highest. But there are other countries rated higher (Finland, for one) without the same societal pressures. Even if it does work, is the cost still worth it?
'If you sleep three hours a day, you may get into a top 'SKY university;' If you sleep fours hours each day, you may get into another university; if you sleep five or more hours each day, especially in your last year of high school, forget getting into any university.' - Korean Proverb
The second silver lining is that after the Suneung, the stress of one's life is greatly lifted. University, by comparison, is extremely low pressure. The students will likely never study that hard again. A high score means a good school, and a good school almost guarantees a good job (Preferably with Samsung or LG).
It's interesting to see the societal changes in a topic I'm very familiar with. Once more, which is better? Too much significance on education? Or not enough?
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Here's a decent documentary on the subject. All the good information is in the first half, the second is kinda just an emotional repeat of the topic at hand.
http://vimeo.com/24642646
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