With the five-level grading system applied to school records last year, the average high school internal assessment score rose by more than 3 points. It suggests that internal exams became easier overall.
On the 25th, Jongno Hagwon analyzed data from the second-semester academic achievement assessment for first-year high school students for the 2025 school year at 1,695 general high schools nationwide and found that the average score across the five core subjects—Korean, English, math, social studies, and science—was 70.4.
That is a 3.5-point increase from the same semester average (66.9) in the previous year, when the nine-level grading system was applied.
Scores rose across all eight regions nationwide. In particular, the increases were notable in ▲Gangwon (4.6 points) ▲Gyeongin (4.3 points) ▲Seoul (3.3 points).
The share of A grades, meaning achievement of 90% or higher, also averaged 24.1%, up from 21.6% the previous year.
However, the share of top performers was far lower on CSAT-style tests. In the nationwide academic assessment for second-year high school students in March this year, the share scoring 90 or above was 2.56% in Korean, 1.19% in math, and 3.48% in English.
Lim Sung-ho, head of Jongno Hagwon, said, "The difficulty gap between school exams and CSAT mock tests is considerable," and noted, "Universities are likely to strengthen institution-specific tests such as interviews and essay exams, in addition to reflecting raw scores, to supplement selectivity."