Current students down 16,000; graduates up 14,000

69.6% chose only social studies, while 14.2% chose only science

Students receive exam papers in a third-year classroom at Hyowon High School in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday, as the September mock exam for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test gets underway. [Yonhap]
Students receive exam papers in a third-year classroom at Hyowon High School in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday, as the September mock exam for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test gets underway. [Yonhap]

A total of 551,864 students have registered for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test, scheduled for Nov. 19, with the share of repeat test-takers climbing to 31.5 percent as the number of graduates retaking the exam rose sharply.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation said Tuesday that 551,864 applicants registered for the 2027 CSAT, down 2,310, or 0.4 percent, from 554,174 last year.

Current high school students accounted for 355,391 of the total — a drop of 16,506, or 4.4 percent, from last year — and their share of all applicants fell 2.7 percentage points to 64.4 percent from 67.1 percent. Graduates and other repeat test-takers, known as "N-sugi," numbered 173,706, up 13,784, or 8.6 percent, with their share rising 2.6 percentage points to 31.5 percent from 28.9 percent. Other applicants, including those who passed the General Educational Development test, increased by 412 to 22,767, accounting for 4.1 percent of the total.

In the elective subjects section, the trend of science-track students opting for social studies — dubbed "social studies switching" — became more pronounced. Of the 527,255 applicants who registered for social or science electives, 367,073, or 69.6 percent, chose only social studies subjects, up 42,668 from 324,405, or 61.0 percent, last year — an increase of 8.6 percentage points.

The number of students who chose only science subjects fell by 45,656, from 120,692, or 22.7 percent, last year to 75,036, or 14.2 percent, this year. Students who chose one social studies subject and one science subject numbered 85,146, accounting for 16.1 percent of the total, roughly in line with last year's 16.3 percent.

By subject area, registrations broke down as follows: Korean language, 545,251 (98.8 percent); mathematics, 518,939 (94.0 percent); English, 537,066 (97.3 percent); and elective subjects, 531,676 (96.3 percent). Registrations for second foreign languages and Chinese classics reached 121,209, up 18,707, or 18.3 percent, from last year. Among those subjects, Japanese I was the most popular choice with 38,954 students, or 32.1 percent.

An online pre-entry system for CSAT registration, introduced nationwide this year, was used by 518,214 applicants, or 93.9 percent of the total. The institute said 99.1 percent of current students and 84.6 percent of graduates and repeat test-takers used the system.


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