The analysis found that the second section 'Mathematics' of the 2026 academic year College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) June mock exam was set at a similar level to last year's CSAT. Overall, the amount of calculations has decreased, and the questions were composed in a way that is easier for mid to high-level students to approach. However, questions 22 of Mathematics I and 30 of Calculus were considered somewhat difficult and were cited as questions to distinguish the top performers.

Shim Joo-seok, a representative math instructor from the EBS Onsite Teacher Group, noted during the 'Mathematics Area Question Trend Analysis Briefing' held at the government Sejong office on the morning of the 4th that 'the mathematics section of the 2026 academic year CSAT June mock exam was set at a similar level to last year's CSAT.' He said, 'Most questions were set in a way that students who have solidly learned the concepts can easily approach them, rather than requiring problem-solving skills, and the amount of calculations has decreased significantly compared to last year's CSAT.'

On June 4, students at Jureaeyeo High School in Sasang-gu, Busan, solve problems during the mock evaluation day for the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

Shim added, 'Questions that deal with content not covered in the public school curriculum, those that require excessive calculations, or those that induce mistakes with unnecessary concepts—so-called 'killer questions'—were excluded.' He also mentioned that mixed-type questions (selecting all correct answers) or completion-type questions (providing incomplete sentences with one or two blanks) that were not presented last year were included, but said that they are at a level that can be easily solved if one understands the basic concepts accurately.

However, he added, 'Some questions require deeper thinking to solve, which also strengthened the discrimination for top performers.'

Expected to have relatively higher discriminatory power, the questions were ▲ Mathematics I 22 (utilizing the graph of exponential functions) ▲ Mathematics II 15 (using the properties of limits of functions) ▲ Probability and Statistics 30 (deriving the number of functions using combinations) ▲ Calculus 30 (using the differentiation of composite functions) ▲ Geometry 30 (utilizing the dot product of plane vectors and position vectors). Shim stated, 'These questions will serve to differentiate between the upper and top performers,' adding that 'especially questions like Mathematics I 22 and Calculus 30 were likely a bit more difficult compared to the items that held discriminatory power in last year's CSAT.'

Regarding the difficulty compared to past CSATs and mock exams, Shim projected that it would not be as difficult as the CSAT two years ago, which was dubbed the 'difficult CSAT,' and predicted it would be closer to last September's mock exam. He cautiously predicted that the number of perfect scorers would not reach the 4,736 perfect scorers from last September's mock exam, but would likely be above the 1,522 perfect scorers from last year's CSAT.

On June 4, Sim Juseok, a representative math instructor from EBS and a teacher at Incheon Haneul High School (right), explains the trends in the math section of the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test mock evaluation in the briefing room of the Ministry of Education at the government complex in Sejong. To the left is Yoon Yoon-gu, a teacher at Hanyang University Erica High School. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

The linkage rate with the EBS CSAT-linked textbooks and overall questions was 50% (15 out of 30 questions). A total of 12 questions were linked, with 6 questions each from Mathematics I and Mathematics II, and 3 questions each from Probability and Statistics, Calculus, and Geometry. The linked questions are ▲ Mathematics I and Mathematics II (common subjects) questions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 ▲ Probability and Statistics (elective subjects) questions 25, 26, 27 ▲ Calculus (elective subjects) questions 25, 26, 27 ▲ Geometry (elective subjects) questions 25, 26, 29.

Academies also evaluated that the difficulty level was generally similar to last year's CSAT. MegaStudy stated, 'Common Mathematics and Calculus were slightly easier than last year's CSAT, while Probability and Statistics and Geometry were at a similar level.' Daesung Academy mentioned, 'Overall, it was similar to last year's CSAT or slightly easier, with Probability and Statistics and Calculus being similar to last year, and Geometry set at a slightly easier difficulty.'

Jongno Academy commented, 'Calculus was more difficult than last year's CSAT,' and added, 'In particular, questions 28 on inferring functions, 30 on composite functions including absolute values, and 29 related to infinite geometric series were set at a very difficult level.'

※ This article has been translated by AI. Share your feedback here.