The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), the agency responsible for the College Scholastic Ability Test, announced that the September mock evaluation for the 2026 academic year, conducted on the 3rd, was designed to align with high school curricula while producing a balanced distribution of appropriately difficult questions to ensure differentiation.
On this day, KICE released the 'September mock evaluation guidelines.' The September mock evaluation, which began at 8:40 a.m., was conducted simultaneously at 2,154 high schools and 533 designated private institutes nationwide.
KICE noted, "We aimed to devise the questions in accordance with the contents and levels of high school curricula to assess the abilities learned through school education. In particular, by focusing on core and fundamental content, we sought to contribute to the normalization of high school education."
It continued, "To ensure the validity of the questions, even if the content has been tested before, we modified the form, concept, and approach of the questions somewhat while focusing on core and fundamental content covered in the curriculum."
Additionally, it explained, "Questions that favor students who have mastered problem-solving skills through private education and repeated training were excluded, and we aimed to ensure differentiation by evenly distributing questions of appropriate difficulty based solely on the content covered in public education."
In the Korean and English sections, a variety of materials and texts were utilized based on the scope of the questions, while the mathematics, inquiry, second foreign language, and classical Chinese sections aimed for assessments centered on critical thinking based on the characteristics of individual subjects. The mandatory Korean history section was designed to assess basic knowledge of our history by focusing on core content. KICE stated, "In subjects with elective options, we aimed to minimize potential advantages or disadvantages based on subject selection."
The linkage rates with Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) materials are ▲Korean 51.1% ▲English 55.6% ▲Other areas 50%. KICE produced the questions by increasing the perceived linkage through the use of charts, images, and texts included in linked textbooks. The linked materials are from the EBS College Scholastic Ability Test textbooks published this year for high school seniors, which KICE has reviewed, as well as the corresponding lecture contents.
KICE revealed, "We aimed to design questions that could assess the understanding and application abilities of fundamental concepts necessary for college education, as well as problem-solving, reasoning, analysis, and inquiry capabilities through given situations," adding, "Each question was assigned differential scoring after comprehensively considering the importance of the curriculum, the level of thinking, the difficulty of the questions, and the time required."