OMONA THEY DID(N&#39;T)!

I hope they did well. But the concept of suneung is shit, one exam to determine you academic future is inhuman. They even set up test centers inside of hospitals? Let these poor kids recover first.

Edited Date: 2021-11-18 10:11 pm (UTC)

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But the concept of suneung is shit, one exam to determine you academic future is inhuman.

Isn't that how university entrance is around the world? At least here it's really similar, only diference is we have more exams and each is 2 hours so we take them over a week instead of just one day.

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Their exam seems 10x harder than the ACT in the US. The SAT is harder, though.

I took a look at the English portion of the suneung and whew...the questions are a chore to read and so wordy that it makes it hard to comprehend. You have to read it a few times to really get it...or maybe I'm just dumb lol. My eyes started to glaze over reading it lol. They use really technical words you'd probably find in like a specialized research journal or some existentialism/philosophy book

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921227.livejournal.com

I remember there was a segment with native English speakers taking the English section and/or toeic and either completely bombing it or barely scraping by and their biggest remarks were the specialized language and wordiness ! So knowing that Korean teenagers beat themselves up over it is sad

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Yeah, it is crazy. The wordiness is unnecessary and it's like they do it on purpose to confuse you lol. Def reminded me of the philosophy books I had to read in college that just made me go ?????????? lol.

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Oh, yeah. I've heard korean exams are really hard, especially since you are required to get really good grades to even study what you want, so the pressure must be really high.

I'm not from the US, so I don't know about ACT and SAT, but our exams are quite different. I've heard that both the US and Korean ones are multiple choice exams? Ours are not like that, you'd have to write an essay in multiple of them, morphologial and lexical analysis of texts and all the questions you have to elaborate for paragraphs. The grading... it's questinable because even if you know the answer to one question the particular teacher might consider that your answer is incomplete or not explained enough and grade you down. I've seen schoolmate get a difference of 3 points (out of 10) when asking for a revision of the exam.

But then again, these exams here they don't matter that much (unless you want to study medicine, the you are fucked). You can get into uni with the bare minimum, like I had to have gotten a 0 on all exams to not get into the career I wanted, so I had 0 pressure doing them.

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In the US, it is mostly multiple choice, but there is also an essay portion.

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em-cavey.livejournal.com

Oh yeah the English section is notoriously preposterous lol
They're so ridiculous and test-takers have basically stopped seeing them as “English” and treat them as coded logic puzzles. They practice very specific tactics to solve them that don't actually have a lot to do with functional English skills. Like, I’ve gotten paid to teach American college students how to read and write better and I doubt I could do very well on those questions lol

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It really is awful lol. Like, if NATIVE ADULT English speakers have trouble, imagine non-native high school speakers?? I feel bad for them. Omg, yes, it is definitely not functional English. It reminded me of high-level specialized journal articles.

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You just said it - in other countries there are multiple exams over the course of a week. in korea it's one giant exam (with different subjects) in one day. No one is able to properly focus for that long.
Add the fact that even students as young as 5th grade start preparing for Suneung. When I was in 5th grade I didn't even think of my final exams.

Also, in my country the grades you receive on tests written during the school year also counts towards your final score. In Korea it's just Suneung. If you're a top student all year long but fail the entrance exam you're fucked.

Edited Date: 2021-11-19 03:59 pm (UTC)

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You just said it - in other countries there are multiple exams over the course of a week. in korea it's one giant exam (with different subjects) in one day. No one is able to properly focus for that long.

As I said ours are more exams and longer so they have to be spread out because of that and to properly schedule the specific ones. The first day we would have 3 exams back to back (with breaks of course) wich would total to 6hours of exam wich is basically the same as this one (or at least how I read it is). But then you'll have to do 2 more the next day, and at least 2 more specific ones on another day.

Also, in my country the grades you receive on tests written during the school year also counts towards your final score. In Korea it's just Suneung. If you're a top student all year long but fail the entrance exam you're fucked.

Yep I agree, not having the preparation years count is messed up. The grades you get in those years are also
added to your final grade here. But it's a doubled edge sword because it helps those who just need average to good grades to get to their desired career. But then there are those that need a nearly perfect score, they are fucked because you cannot allow yourself to make a single mistake in two whole years, because if you do then wave goodbye to your dream. And then even if you didmanage to have twoperfectyears of grades you then have to ace all the exams, good thing is you can retake them in September, or lose a year and retake them next year. Is it possible to retake them in Korea? Or if you failed you failed and there's no going back? Because that'd be awful.

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em-cavey.livejournal.com

Also, in my country the grades you receive on tests written during the school year also counts towards your final score. In Korea it's just Suneung. If you're a top student all year long but fail the entrance exam you're fucked.
Not the commenter you replied to but just saying this isn't entirely true. Your grades and other specs definitely do count in college admissions, especially depending on what kind of majors/schools you're applying to. But suneung is very heavily weighted, especially in more competitive fields, so if you truly bomb the entire test then you're probably pretty screwed for that year.

Is it possible to retake them in Korea?
You can retake it several times, I've heard of people retaking up to four times (but that's pretty extreme). The difficulty comes from the fact that it's only administered once a year so if you want to retake, you have to spend another whole year preparing/stressing about it. Retaking once or even twice isn't uncommon but it's often not an easy decision.

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Retaking once or even twice isn't uncommon but it's often not an easy decision.

Yeah, some of my schoolmates decided to retake it here (I know some of them wanted to be doctors since they were like 5-6 y.o. but it's basically impossible to get the grades to be one). One of them did the July ones completely failed them because they were too nervous then decided to retake them in September and did not get a high enough grade. And then decided to wait one year to retake them again but they ended up failing again unfortunately. So they basically lost a whole year for nothing.

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921227.livejournal.com

These tests are v v important so good luck to those test taker!!

I didn't take the SAT or ACT which are the US equivalents and am glad about it. I'm also glad colleges and universities are slowly moving past needing those scores

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twinklehana.livejournal.com

as i'm applying to college right now a test like this is unimaginable to me lol. i did take the sat this year but it wasn't nearly as bad as this seems. best of luck to all the students taking it

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sunsetburgundy.livejournal.com

Such pressure. Good luck to everyone and I hope their parents let them know their scores do not determine their value.

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babycheeses1.livejournal.com

I don't hate the idea of these exams tbh. I feel like it evens out the playing field, and everyone has the same fair chance at university.

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921227.livejournal.com

That could be true but considering the amount of Korean students who have to go to cram schools at cost just to keep up , theyre still probably not that fair

&& even the US' SAT is proven to be unfair to lower class/poorer students of color, this exam might have similar elements

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I feel like it evens out the playing field, and everyone has the same fair chance at university.

As another user already said, the students with parents that are able to pay for cram schools have much better chances than the ones that receive no extra help and have to study on their own.

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peachypearl.livejournal.com

These exams should definitely be modified, they are cruel but to do so must mean to change the entire way SK operates for school, universities and jobs. These exams have such a devastating and lasting effect on your entire future that children commit suicide if they don't do well. Not to mention the lasting effects from studying your entire free time simply to keep up, the lack of sleep. It has horrendous effects on the body and mind.

I am unable to view these tests in a positive light. A fair and equal test to get into university is one thing, but to fail it and be condemned in the eyes of society and sometimes even your whole family is too much.

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em-cavey.livejournal.com

I live right next to a high school and all construction in the neighborhood has to stop for the day (no buzzsaws and jackhammers in the morning for once 🙌🏻). There’s a big crowd of family and press at the school gates by 5PM and when all the kids come flooding out, the sense of relief/ release is palpable.
It’s a tough, tough thing these kids got through and no matter the result, they should be proud of themselves. All the best to all of them.

Edited Date: 2021-11-19 02:16 pm (UTC)

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