Although you’ve sat around with a big smile on your face watching the videos and reading the letters, you probably wondered at one point, “What is the sooneung?” and "Why are so many stars putting out these encouragement videos?"
The sooneung, or the College Scholastics Ability Test is the biggest test a student will ever take in Korea as it determines which university and which career a student will have in the future.
It’s easily compared to SATs in the US, but the sooneung, unlike the SATs, can only be taken once a year, raising the stakes a little higher.
Students take the sooneung in their last year old high school, but many will start preparing for it as early as kindergarten, since the exam will literally make or break a student’s career.
The exam is taken so seriously that the team of around 700 people involved in creating the tests, usually members of the Korean Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, professors, high school teachers, and even medical staff to take care of the exam creators, must sign a confidentiality contract.
While they create the questions and solve for the answers, they must live for around 32 days in a secluded area with all contact with the outside world cut off. Even the trash collected during this time will not be thrown out until after the exam period for the fear of an exam problem leaking into the public.
On the day of exam, which always falls on the first Thursday of November, businessmen head to work an hour or so later to prevent traffic for students headed to their examination centers. Some late students are even escorted by police.
The stock markets also open later than usual, and airline companies will reschedule flights to make sure there are no airplanes in the air during the listening portion of the exam.
The exam begins at 8:40 AM and end at 5:00 PM.
For 2013, the sooneung will take place on November 7 nationwide with many students, including idol group members, ready to take the exam.
Despite busy schedules and endless hours of practice, there are idol group members who are still determined to focus on completing their education and will take the exam.
Included in this group for 2013 are After School’s Ka Eun, A Pink’s Kim Nam Joo, BTOB’s Yuk Sung Jae, C-Clown’s T.K, MYNAME’s Chae Jin, GLAM’s Miso, SPEED’s Sung Min, 5-Doll’s Hye Won, HelloVenus’ Yoo Young, and more.
Rainbow’s Seung Ah, A Pink’s Son Na Eun, B1A4’s Sandeul, and others were accepted into universities through rolling admission.
Teen Top’s Ricky and Changjo, VIXX’s Hyuk, NU’EST’s Baekho, Minhyuk, JR, and Ren, A-JAX’s Seung Yeop and Seung Jin, and B1A4’s Baro are waiting to hear back about their rolling admissions.
Good luck to all the students taking the test on Thursday!
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