CSAT authority releases September mock exam results

15.54% earn top English grade — five times last year's rate

One in four test-takers is a repeat candidate

69% sit only social studies exams, making score predictions harder

A student fills out an answer sheet at Bangsan High School in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Friday, the day of the September mock exam for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test. [Joint press corps]
A student fills out an answer sheet at Bangsan High School in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Friday, the day of the September mock exam for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test. [Joint press corps]

More than 60,000 students earned the top grade in English on the final mock exam before the College Scholastic Ability Test. With one in six English test-takers scoring 90 points or above on the September mock exam for the 2027 CSAT, difficulty adjustments for the November exam appear unavoidable.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation on Monday announced the results of the September mock exam held Sept. 2. A total of 396,118 students sat the exam — 298,250 of them current high school students and 97,868 graduates, GED passers and others. The latter group accounted for about 24.7 percent of all test-takers.

Particularly notable was the growing share of repeat candidates — students retaking the exam under the current system before a major overhaul of university admissions takes effect for the 2028 academic year. Starting that year, the CSAT will eliminate elective subjects in Korean, mathematics and the exploratory areas, leading more graduates to view this year as their last chance to compete under familiar rules.

English, dubbed "lava English" for its extreme difficulty on last year's CSAT, proved far easier on this September mock exam. Of the 395,460 students who sat the English section — graded on an absolute scale — 61,457, or 15.54 percent, earned the top grade. That is 12.43 percentage points higher than the 3.11 percent top-grade rate on last year's CSAT. Another 89,291 students (22.58 percent) received the second grade, and 92,836 (23.48 percent) the third.

In Korean language, the standard score cutoff for the top grade was 131 points, with 16,363 students (4.16 percent) reaching that threshold. The cutoffs for the second and third grades were 124 and 117 points, respectively. In mathematics, a standard score of 128 or above qualified for the top grade, earned by 21,666 students, or 5.55 percent of test-takers. The second- and third-grade cutoffs were 122 and 118 points. The grade cutoffs for Korean and mathematics are based on standard scores, not raw scores.

EBS classroom teachers and the test-prep industry assessed Korean as harder than the June mock exam but somewhat easier than last year's CSAT. Opinions on mathematics were divided, with some analysts rating it comparable to last year's CSAT and others calling it more difficult.

The trend of science-track students choosing social studies exams — known as "satam-run" — was also pronounced. Of the 390,120 students who sat the social studies or science exploratory sections, 270,301, or about 69.3 percent, took only social studies exams. That is more than five times the 51,461 students who sat only science exams. Another 68,358 students took a combination of social studies and science subjects.

The test-prep industry views the satam-run phenomenon and the rise in repeat candidates as factors complicating predictions of actual CSAT scores. Even students who performed well in English and other sections on this mock exam are advised to review their results across all subjects to confirm they can reliably meet the minimum CSAT score requirements for early admissions.

"The 2027 CSAT is shaping up to be a year where score prediction is quite difficult, given the increase in repeat candidates and the deepening satam-run trend," said Im Seong-ho, head of Jongno Hagwon. "Students need to carefully recheck whether they can secure the minimum CSAT scores required for their early admissions applications."


brunch@heraldcorp.com