The last mock assessment before next year's College Scholastic Ability Test will be held on September 3rd. The number of applicants for this mock assessment increased by 5.65% compared to last year. Among the applicants, the number of graduates has recorded over 100,000 for three consecutive years.
The proportion of test-takers in the social studies area in this mock assessment is expected to reach the highest level in 15 years. The phenomenon of choosing social studies over scientific inquiry, known as the 'sociology trend,' continues.
The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) announced on the 26th that the September mock assessment for next year's College Scholastic Ability Test will be conducted at 2,154 high schools and 533 designated institutions nationwide.
The number of test-takers registered for this mock assessment is 515,900, an increase of 27,608 (5.65%) from last year. Among them, 410,210 (79.5%) are current students, and 105,690 (20.5%) are graduates. Although the number of current students increased by 28,477, the number of graduates decreased by 869. However, graduates have maintained more than 100,000 for three consecutive years since the September mock assessment for the 2024 academic year.
The trend of mock assessment applicants choosing social studies is increasing every year. The number of test-takers for social studies in this mock assessment is 391,449. This represents a 34.8% increase (101,028) compared to last year (290,421). Additionally, the proportion of social studies test-takers is 61.3%, the highest rate in 15 years since the 2012 academic year (60.9%), according to Jongno Academy. In contrast, the science inquiry area has a rate of 38.7%.
The September mock assessment will be conducted similarly to the actual College Scholastic Ability Test. It starts with the first session for the Korean language area (8:40 a.m. to 10 a.m.) followed by ▲second session for the mathematics area (10:30 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.) ▲third session for the English area (1:10 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.) ▲fourth session for the Korean history area and social, science, and vocational inquiry areas (2:50 p.m. to 4:37 p.m.) ▲fifth session for the second foreign language and classical Chinese area (5:05 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.).
The Korean language and mathematics areas will apply a 'common + elective subjects' structure. Common subjects are taken by all test-takers who chose the area. For Korean language, test-takers will select one from either 'Speech and Writing' or 'Language and Media,' and for mathematics, one from either 'Probability and Statistics,' 'Calculus,' or 'Geometry.'
For social and science inquiry, test-takers can select up to two from 17 subjects. In the vocational inquiry area, they can also select up to two from six subjects. If the mandatory area of Korean history is not taken, the entire score is rendered invalid. In this case, a score report will not be provided.
KICE will accept objections to questions and answers from September 3rd to 6th. The announcement of confirmed answers will be made on September 16th at 5 p.m. Scores will be notified on September 30th.