Gov't considers AI to draft future CSAT English section after criticism of last year's test difficulty

Students check their answers of this year's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) on Nov. 14, 2025, a day after the test took place, at a high school in Daegu. [NEWS1]

 
The Ministry of Education announced Thursday that it will consider utilizing AI to draft passages for the English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) following criticism that last year's overly difficult exam resulted from frequent last-minute changes to the passages.
 
“Compared to other sections, an excessively large number of questions in the English section were changed during the drafting process,” Shin Jin-yong, director of university admissions policy at the Ministry of Education, said on Thursday. “Subsequent follow-up procedures, including difficulty checks, were disrupted.”
 

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The findings were the result of a review of the test-making process, according to the Education Ministry. The review took place from Dec.10 to 23 last year at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE).
 
Last year's CSAT took place on Nov. 13, with test-takers criticizing the excessive difficulty of the English exam passages. 
 
In the English test, which has 45 questions, 42.2 percent ― or 19 ― questions were replaced, compared to only one in the Korean and four in the mathematics sections.
 
"The process of eliminating errors and difficult questions that go beyond the public education level dragged on until the final phase, which meant that we could not spend enough time on adjusting the difficulty of the questions," explained KICE in materials submitted to the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Moon-soo.
 
During last year's CAST exams, only 3.11 percent of test-takers earned the highest grade in English, well below the percentages in other subjects assessed by relative grading. It was also the lowest level since the introduction of absolute grading in 2018, sparking criticism that KICE had failed to adjust its difficulty levels.
 
The president of the evaluation institute resigned over the situation.
 

Students taking the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) check their testing rooms at a high school in Jung District, central Seoul, on Nov. 12, 2025.[NEWS1]

 
The ministry will increase the ratio of teachers in the question-setting committee from the current 33 percent to 50 percent. The rest are made up of education experts, including Education Ministry officials.
 
"Increasing the teacher ratio will help us create more realistic questions that meet students' actual academic progress," said Shin. Shin added that co-authoring history for EBS and textbooks will be given greater weight when appointing members of the question-setting committee.
 
Using AI to create exam questions is the long-term plan. The ministry plans to create a support center to develop educational test items, including AI-generated English passages. The ministry also proposed using AI to predict question difficulties and review similar questions. The program will run preliminary feasibility tests and program the system later this year in time for a test run in the 2028 mock exam. 
 
Currently, exam creators and reviewers are isolated for about one month before the CSAT each year at different temporary accommodations. Under the ministry’s plan, however, test-setting would need to take place at facilities linked to AI systems, which could potentially pose security concerns.
 

Test takers are waiting for the College Scholastic Ability Test to begin in a high school in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Nov. 11, 2024 [YONHAP]

 
“We will focus on securing a closed, private server equipped with an independent security system,” said Song Geun-hyeon, director-general for higher education policy at the ministry.
 
Concerns have also been raised that using AI to develop CSAT passages could further lower the scores of mid- and low-performing students.
 
“About 50 percent of the CSAT is currently linked to EBS materials, and if passages are created through AI, students in the mid- and lower ranks who struggle with unfamiliar content may see their scores decline further,” said Woo Yeon-cheol, head of admissions strategy research at Jinhak.


This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM MIN-SANG [lee.jiwon10@joongang.co.kr]