Require complex and graph fingerprint interpretation capabilities
Continuing to point out that it is the main culprit behind the overheating of private education
Question 17 released in the Korean language section of the 2023 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is considered a representative ‘killer question’. The given text itself is difficult to understand, and the length of the question is long, so the time to solve it is delayed. The killer question, which requires high difficulty and long time to solve, was pointed out as the main culprit of the so-called “Insufficient College Scholastic Ability Test” and triggering competition for private education among top test takers seeking high scores.
Question 17 was a question that was solved using the information on “Kriver’s Basic Metabolic Study” given in the text. Fingerprints describe an “L-graph” that shows the relationship between weight gain and underlying metabolic rate, which can be solved only when the candidate understands this information properly. The choices presented separately in the question are also thick. In other words, it is a problem that can be solved only when graph interpretation and view interpretation can be combined.
As such, killer questions have high difficulty in the problem itself, but they also take a long time to solve. It can be seen that the applicant’s ability to interpret fingerprints and to distribute time is also tested.
However, the killer question has been pointed out by some as a reason for encouraging competition among top test takers for private education. The top players who change their rankings in the first and second questions should put their lives on one killer question. In the academy district, there are also many professional lectures that only target killer questions.
A typical example is the method of making test takers learn tests that are much more difficult than the CSAT. Some academies are said to be mobilizing the Legal Profitability Test (LEET) textbook, which is used for admission to law schools.
The academy also develops killer questions directly. It is a workbook called “killer question workbook,” and it is also common to market such a workbook at the forefront. In some cases, a “killer question contest” was held for entrance exam instructors and graduate students to offer prize money between 1 and 2.5 million won.
Meanwhile, the ruling party and the government decided to exclude killer questions from this CSAT. Lee Tae-kyu, a member of the National Assembly’s Education Committee, told reporters shortly after the National Assembly’s “Party Council on Improving School Education Competitiveness and Reducing Private Education.”
Lee Ju-ho, deputy prime minister for social affairs and education, who attended the party-government council, said, “One of the biggest problems of education was to ask questions that were not covered in the public education process on the CSAT.”
