During the question-setting process for the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test English section, 19 of the 45 questions were replaced at the last minute, records show. That is a larger number than Korean (one question) and math (four questions). The Ministry of Education judged that frequent replacements disrupted difficulty checks and made English a "killer test."
The Ministry of Education said on the 11th that "English on the CSAT saw more question replacements than other subjects, and as a result, follow-up procedures such as difficulty checks did not proceed smoothly," adding that "the review committee's views were not adequately reflected." The share of top grade (level 1) in English, an absolute-evaluation subject, was 3.11% this year, the lowest on record.
According to the Ministry of Education, English often uses existing source texts rather than crafting passages from scratch as in Korean. In trying to avoid overlaps with private-education questions, replacements became frequent, it said. Random selection of question-setters also led to many Commissioners lacking sufficient experience, which was cited as another cause.
Teachers accounted for 33% of the English question-setting Commissioners this year, lower than in other subjects (45%). With professors relatively overrepresented, the test is assessed to have insufficiently reflected test-takers' actual academic levels.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Education will raise the share of teacher Commissioners in the English section to as high as 50%. It will also strengthen vetting of the expertise of question-setters and reviewers. Additional checks will include CSAT and mock-test authoring history and whether they have written textbooks or EBS materials. The pool will also include Commissioners from the nationwide joint academic achievement assessments.
The Ministry of Education will also integrate and launch question-check committees by section to strengthen difficulty checks. In the mid to long term, it will push to establish an education assessment and question-setting support center by 2030. With stronger security at the center, it expects to be able to use artificial intelligence (AI). A Ministry of Education official said, "AI could be used for question setting, difficulty prediction, and reviewing similar questions."