Director Oh Seung-geol of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) said about the scoring results for English in the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), "It is regrettable that the results do not align with the intent of absolute grading."

The English section uses an absolute grading system in which scores of 90 or higher receive "grade 1." However, this time the proportion of grade 1 was in the 3% range, the lowest on record. Considering that the proportion of grade 1 in other sections that use relative grading is 4%, it appears that the number of students who received grade 1 in English was very limited this time.

Oh Seung-geol, head of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), explains the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test operations at the Ministry of Education in the Government Complex Sejong on the morning of the 13th in Sejong City. /Courtesy of News1

At a briefing at the Government Sejong Complex that day, Oh said, "Looking at the scoring results, for mathematics, social studies, and science, the outcomes were generally in line with the test design in terms of discrimination and difficulty," but added, "For Korean and English, the items turned out to be more difficult than intended and confirmed during the drafting and review process."

According to the 2026 scoring results released by the institute, for English, which is absolute graded and reported only by level, 15,154 students scored 90 or higher and received grade 1 (3.11%). This share is the lowest since the introduction of absolute grading in English in the 2018 academic year and since the CSAT was introduced in the 1994 academic year.

The highest standard score under relative grading was tallied at 147 in Korean and 139 in mathematics. Compared with last year, Korean rose by 8 points and mathematics fell by 1 point. Standard scores rise as the test becomes more difficult.

Oh said, "The CSAT is administered to check the extent of completion of the high school curriculum while at the same time providing materials for college admissions selection," and added, "With these goals of the CSAT in mind, we draft questions within the scope of public education so that high school education can operate normally, while putting great effort into item development to ensure sufficient discrimination for college admissions."

Oh said, "Once again, I extend my deep gratitude to all the test-takers and parents who went through this CSAT."

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