In the June mock examination for the 2026 academic year college entrance exam (Suneung), the first part 'Korean Language' was analyzed to be somewhat easier than last year's Suneung.
Choi Seo-hee, a representative lecturer for the Korean Language at the EBS field teacher group and a teacher at Seoul Jungdong High School, said at the 'Analysis Briefing on Korean Language Exam Trends' held at the Government Sejong Office on the morning of the 4th, "The Korean Language section of the June mock exam for the 2026 academic year Suneung faithfully reflected the achievement standards of the 2015 revised curriculum and the core concepts of the textbooks," and noted, "The difficulty level is somewhat easier than last year's Suneung."
Choi stated, "The amount of information in the passages is appropriate, and the structure of the information is not complex, so it is at a level that can be adequately prepared with only the reading comprehension ability learned in school," and noted, "The so-called 'killer questions' have been excluded."
She added, "The answer choices in the questions were set in a way that allows appropriateness to be judged without excessive inference," and stated, "It appears that questions of appropriate difficulty were distributed to distinguish students based on the core content or concepts of the curriculum."
The overall correlation rate between the EBS-linked materials and all questions was 51.1% (23 questions in total). Of the four passages in the reading part, three were from the EBS-linked materials, and of the six works in the literature part, three were from the EBS-linked materials. The correlated questions included ▲ Reading and Literature (common subjects) 4, 6–8, 10–12, 14–17, 22–23, 26–30, 31, 33–34 ▲ Speech and Composition (elective subjects) 38, 40 ▲ Language and Media (elective subjects) 36, 38. Choi noted, "The practical linkage perception that exam candidates feel was likely to be high."
Questions that exam candidates are expected to feel somewhat burdened by include ▲ Reading 12 (science and technology question, related to ammonia hydrogen extraction methods) ▲ Reading 17 (humanities, comparison of the views of Pralid and Kant on artificial intelligence cases) ▲ Literature 21 (modern novel) ▲ Speech and Composition 40 (understanding the utilization patterns of memos for preparing interview questions) ▲ Language and Media 37 (grammar elements, sentence structure, and sentence constituent concepts), among others.
It is expected that the highest standard score will be between last September's mock test (129 points) and last year's Suneung (139 points). Choi stated, "This June mock exam Korean Language section did not feature new types or unfamiliar formats of questions," and added, "I think it would be beneficial for candidates to thoroughly study the past exam questions and the EBS-linked materials, Suneung Special and Suneung Completion, in preparing for future exams."
In the private education sector, it was generally evaluated to be at a similar level to last year's Suneung. MegaStudy noted, "It was set at a similar difficulty level to last year's Suneung," while Jongno Academy stated, "It was set at a level similar to or slightly more difficult than last year's Suneung," adding, "It was easier than last year's very difficult June mock exam." Etoos Edu commented, "It may have felt similar to or slightly more difficult than last year's Suneung."
There are also evaluations that the literature part was relatively difficult. Jongno Academy noted, "In the modern novel part, works that were not usually linked to EBS were included, which likely took considerable time to read," adding, "The most difficult questions appear to be Literature 21, and Reading 17 and 18." MegaStudy commented, "Reading 8, 12, and 17, along with Literature 21, likely posed high-level questions that were challenging for candidates to solve."