Sejun Park is one of my best friends in Korea. He is twenty years old, same with me. He is currently a freshman in Korea University, one of the top three universities in Korea. I thought he would be an appropriate interviewee because he went through three times of Korean college entrance exam since 2012. This well reflects phenomenon that majority of Korean students frequently take gap years for college entrance. I prepared some questions for him to specify the process of Korean college entrance based on his knowledge and experience.
1. How have you prepared for college entrance exam in middle school? How was it different from in high school?
Unlike other students, I have not been striving that hard to prepare for college entrance. Not only did I feel college entrances was such a far future when I was in middle school, but also I did not have much information about it. When I became middle school third year, I started to prepare for foreign language school entrance exam. Still, I was not that desperate, but rather focused on learning English. On the other hand, I focused a lot on preparing for college entrance exam when I was in high school.
2. What admissions did you mainly aim for and why? What do you think are the pros and cons for each admission?
I do not have an outstanding skill or talent to show off; therefore I had no choice but to mainly focus on the normal admission, which assesses students with exam scores.
The normal admission is not only very simple but pretty much fair and objective because every student has equal chance take and prepare. However, I am doubtful whether the entrance exam is comprehensive enough to judge the students' abilities to catch up with the college academics.
The nonscheduled rolling admission, on the other hand, assesses students with much more various standards: English proficiency, interview, personal essay and many other criteria. I would say it would be relatively more comprehensive compared to the normal admission. Nonetheless, it is somewhat subjective and the result can inevitably vary based on who is making assessments or their individual thoughts. Also, regarding the English proficiency, one of the main criterion of assessments, those of have studied abroad or been to private institutes have better chance of better assessments. Therefore, it seems somewhat unfair in some way.
3. What do you think is the most significant aspect that students should have in mind that colleges would like in Korea?
When assessing students, I think the colleges mostly look for students' logical thoughts. After getting into college, logical thoughts and fluent speech abilities are crucial, so logical way of thinking is fundamental for college academics.
4. How do you like your college now? Is it worth for your gap years? Is it the same as you expected beforehand?
To be honest, I am very unsatisfactory with my college life. Despite the fact that I am currently a student in one of the top three colleges in Korea, it was much less than what I have expected. I expected college academics to be deeper and more comprehensive, but majority of school requirement was a simple memorization. It is true that simple memorization is a fundamental thing for studying, but I thought it would not be another significant part again in college academics. Some of the factors including professors' insincere teaching attitude seem to make colleges fade into some kind of private academies for job search. However, I think taking gap years was definitely a worthy experience for me. If I had not taken gap years and gone to college right away, I would have been in a even worse college life.
5. Compared to high school, how is the workload in college?
Compared to high school, I hardly have workload in college. However, I am skeptical with the fact that my way of studying did not improve in any way in college. If I put a tenth effort of what I put in high school, I am able to cover pretty much most of the workload in college.
6. How well do you think the entrance exam in Korea helps colleges to understand the students?
I do not think Korean college entrance process accurately grasp the students. Since it is a once-in-a-year opportunity, there are so many students who get unimaginably nervous with the exam and eventually mess it up, even though they are so well aware of all the materials for the exam. Some people might say becoming nervous also is one of the deficiencies of students, but I can claim for sure that that deficiency would barely affect their abilities or potentials afterwards. To well judge the students, colleges must take various abilities into consideration, but college entrance exam mainly focuses on Korean, English and mathematics. Plus, the current English exam seems to be very deficient to assess students' English skill, which makes the situation worse. Furthermore, regarding the Korean exam, the important parts including writing and speaking are not even tested in the exam.
1. How have you prepared for college entrance exam in middle school? How was it different from in high school?
Unlike other students, I have not been striving that hard to prepare for college entrance. Not only did I feel college entrances was such a far future when I was in middle school, but also I did not have much information about it. When I became middle school third year, I started to prepare for foreign language school entrance exam. Still, I was not that desperate, but rather focused on learning English. On the other hand, I focused a lot on preparing for college entrance exam when I was in high school.
2. What admissions did you mainly aim for and why? What do you think are the pros and cons for each admission?
I do not have an outstanding skill or talent to show off; therefore I had no choice but to mainly focus on the normal admission, which assesses students with exam scores.
The normal admission is not only very simple but pretty much fair and objective because every student has equal chance take and prepare. However, I am doubtful whether the entrance exam is comprehensive enough to judge the students' abilities to catch up with the college academics.
The nonscheduled rolling admission, on the other hand, assesses students with much more various standards: English proficiency, interview, personal essay and many other criteria. I would say it would be relatively more comprehensive compared to the normal admission. Nonetheless, it is somewhat subjective and the result can inevitably vary based on who is making assessments or their individual thoughts. Also, regarding the English proficiency, one of the main criterion of assessments, those of have studied abroad or been to private institutes have better chance of better assessments. Therefore, it seems somewhat unfair in some way.
3. What do you think is the most significant aspect that students should have in mind that colleges would like in Korea?
When assessing students, I think the colleges mostly look for students' logical thoughts. After getting into college, logical thoughts and fluent speech abilities are crucial, so logical way of thinking is fundamental for college academics.
4. How do you like your college now? Is it worth for your gap years? Is it the same as you expected beforehand?
To be honest, I am very unsatisfactory with my college life. Despite the fact that I am currently a student in one of the top three colleges in Korea, it was much less than what I have expected. I expected college academics to be deeper and more comprehensive, but majority of school requirement was a simple memorization. It is true that simple memorization is a fundamental thing for studying, but I thought it would not be another significant part again in college academics. Some of the factors including professors' insincere teaching attitude seem to make colleges fade into some kind of private academies for job search. However, I think taking gap years was definitely a worthy experience for me. If I had not taken gap years and gone to college right away, I would have been in a even worse college life.
5. Compared to high school, how is the workload in college?
Compared to high school, I hardly have workload in college. However, I am skeptical with the fact that my way of studying did not improve in any way in college. If I put a tenth effort of what I put in high school, I am able to cover pretty much most of the workload in college.
6. How well do you think the entrance exam in Korea helps colleges to understand the students?
I do not think Korean college entrance process accurately grasp the students. Since it is a once-in-a-year opportunity, there are so many students who get unimaginably nervous with the exam and eventually mess it up, even though they are so well aware of all the materials for the exam. Some people might say becoming nervous also is one of the deficiencies of students, but I can claim for sure that that deficiency would barely affect their abilities or potentials afterwards. To well judge the students, colleges must take various abilities into consideration, but college entrance exam mainly focuses on Korean, English and mathematics. Plus, the current English exam seems to be very deficient to assess students' English skill, which makes the situation worse. Furthermore, regarding the Korean exam, the important parts including writing and speaking are not even tested in the exam.