Korean Education vs. American Education

*As the semester winds down, it gets harder and harder to blog every week. I apologize for the lack of posts, but I plan to make up for them now. So much has happened since my last blog post, and I want to update readers of my time in South Korea. Stay tuned for two more blog posts this week!

On November 14^th, high school students all over South Korea took their college entrance exam. It is an eight-hour test, containing subjects such as Korean, English, math, etc. Some Koreans refer to it as the Korean SAT. In my opinion, however, the Korean college entrance exam is much more challenging and demanding than the SAT in America. Students have only one opportunity to take this test in an academic year, meaning performance on testing day is extremely crucial. If a student messes up, he or she must wait another year to take the test again.

The Korean educational system was a complete shock to me. Students prepare for this one exam for several years. They enroll in after school academies to learn English, math, etc. The same level of intensity cannot be seen in the United States. Most American students prepare for the SAT or ACT in their sophomore or junior year of high school. They rarely spend thousands of dollars to prepare for a single test at such a young age.

I witnessed a small bit of the Korean college entrance exam’s intensity this year. My younger cousin—along with every other high school senior—took the test this November. I called her the night before and wished her good luck. She felt comfortable in her abilities, but she worried about the end result. I remember coming to her house afterward—it was complete chaos. My aunt, uncle, and cousin talked about the test all night. They spent hours trying to figure out her possible score and the colleges within her scoring range. I couldn’t even imagine the apprehension she must’ve felt. Although the test results did not officially come out, she already had a good grasp on her score.

This experience made me think about the different educational systems all over the world. There is a lot of learning to be done. Instead of looking at Korea’s educational system and deeming it strange, I wish to learn about the cultural reasons behind such a rigorous college examination.