SAT Day

Thursday was the day all of the high school seniors in Korea took the college entrance exam, what they call the CSAT.  It is the equivalent of the SAT test in America except much longer, much more difficult and carries much, much more weight.  It is only offered one time a year so when that day comes its a big deal.  We didn't know anything about it last year but since I work at a public school this year I learned a few things.  First of all, I got to sleep in an extra hour (to make up for missing that extra hour everyone back home got with daylight savings time last weekend) because all government offices and organizations cannot start work until 10:00.  This is to prevent too many traffic jams that prevent students from getting to their test site on time.  Extra buses and subways run and the police department has a hotline students can call if they are desperate for a quick ride (not sure how quick it really is since no one pulls over for police cars anyway).   Also, no planes took off or landed anywhere in Korea from 1:00 to 1:40 because that was when the listening part of the English section took place and there were no military drills during the entire testing time.

Many believe this is the biggest day of a person's life.  In Korea there are three universities that are the best.  By best I mean companies like Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo (everyone's dream job) only hire people from these universities.  They are known as the SKY schools: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University.  In order to have any kind of chance of getting into one of these schools you have to score very, very high on the CSAT.  The pressure to do well and get into one of these schools is enormous.  And when some students simply can't live up to the expectations or succumb to the pressure it proves disastrous.  Suicide is the leading cause of death in people between the ages of 15-24 in Korea.  For those who do get into a SKY school and land a job with a company like Samsung or Hyundai, they can expect to make very good money as they work eighty to a hundred hour weeks.  The statistics don't change much after age 24, unfortunately.

Here's a story Eric heard from a parent he tutors for about the CSAT:  Apparently there was a student who was in a car accident on the way to the testing site.  Somehow his mom convinced someone in charge to let him take the test at the same time as the rest of the country while in the hospital.  I don't know if this shows their dedication to education or just the insanity of the pressure and expectations from society.

If only there could be a nice balance between the extreme dedication of Korean culture to education and the seemingly zero stress / laid back-ness of American education...