With the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) fast approaching, concerns are growing regarding this year's test due to the government's announcement of the "killer problem exclusion" policy. The policy, announced just five months before the CSAT will be held, is causing confusion among many students and parents. Furthermore, questions arise about how it will maintain differentiation among top students and whether this policy will effectively reduce the influence of private education. For these reasons, the government should not abolish killer questions from the CSAT.

First, there is a problem of a decrease in “differentiation power”. Without killer questions, there are doubts about correctly sorting out the “superior” students. Since the CSAT uses a relative grading system, there is a limited proportion of top grades. An easy exam without killer questions can lead to having too many perfect scorers leading to significant grade drops even with just small mistakes. This means that minor errors in the CSAT can have excessively significant consequences, making it difficult to distinguish students with actual abilities. For instance, in the 2001 CSAT, 66 students achieved a perfect score across all subjects, and there were five times more students who scored 380 points or higher out of 400 points than the year prior. This “easy exam” caused a lot of confusion in that year's admissions process. Therefore, maintaining the differentiation power in the CSAT is crucial. Second, the exclusion policy for killer questions can cause anxiety among many test-takers and students all across preparing for the exam. When the policy was announced on June 19th, there were only five months left before the 2024 CSAT, which was after some of the Mock Tests were released. The June and September Mock Test provided by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) is important for test-takers, as they reflect the direction of the upcoming CSAT. Many students use the June Mock Test results to plan their admission strategies and practice as if it were the actual CSAT. Therefore, changing the CSAT structure after the June Mock Test could lead to sudden changes in study strategies for many students, causing confusion. Also, there are generations of students who prepare for the CSAT killer questions. Changing the system now can affect all students who have been preparing for the test. Third, excluding killer questions does not guarantee the eradication of private education. In August, Representative Kim Young-ho of the Democratic Party in an interview with “Financial News” stated that “the hypothesis that killer problems are a core cause of triggering private education is incorrect. The core issues of private education in Korea lie in the university ranking system and the prevalent emphasis on prestigious universities in society." The expansion of the private education market in Korea is not solely attributed to "killer problems." Changes in the admissions system have influenced the evolution of private education. When comprehensive student evaluations were expanded, consulting-based private education grew. Similarly, when essay exams were emphasized, essay-focused academies expanded. Therefore, unless the university ranking system and the emphasis on prestigious universities are addressed, eliminating "killer problems" will not fundamentally solve the issue of reducing private education.

Therefore, the exclusion of killer questions presents several issues. This policy raises challenges about whether the CSAT can still achieve its intended purpose of differentiation. Also, it causes confusion and anxiety among students and parents, especially given the proximity of the upcoming CSAT date. However, above all, the killer question exclusion policy does not provide a solution to the original purpose of alleviating the influence of private education. Therefore, the Korean government should not eliminate "killer problems" from the CSAT.

With the CSAT just around the corner, such abrupt changes could indeed burden many test-takers. However, there are opinions suggesting that such policies were necessary to reduce the influence of private education. Thus, this policy can't be viewed from a single perspective. Among various viewpoints, there is a great deal of anticipation about how this year's CSAT will unfold. Whether this policy will be a significant first step towards reducing private education or result in an increase in the number of students retaking the CSAT next year remains to be seen. CAH readers, what are your thoughts on the "killer question exclusion" policy? Whatever your stance is, CAH supports all test-takers taking the 2024 CSAT this year.