By Lee Kyoung Mi, Kim Minji and Lee Jihae
Video = Choi Taesoon
Seoul | Dec. 3, 2020

The annual College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) was given on Dec. 3 at 1,383 test centers nationwide.

This year's exam was initially slated for Nov. 19 but got delayed two weeks after regular school semesters were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The number of students who registered to take the test this year was 493,433, and the exam was also the nation's largest since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The number of test takers was the lowest since the CSAT's inception in declining 10.1% or 55,301 students from last year's. Yet separate facilities were set up so that students who tested positive for COVID-19 or were in quarantine could still take the exam. As a result, the number of test centers was 198 more than last year's 1,185.

Students on Dec. 3 take the CSAT at Sunrin Internet High School in Seoul's Yongsan-gu District. All desks have plastic dividers between them. (Yonhap News)

The pandemic has led to many differences between this year's test and last year's.

Students had to get their body temperatures checked and their hands sanitized before entering a classroom to take the exam. They also had to wear a mask throughout the exam and sit at desks with plastic dividers. Each classroom had its windows opened for ventilation between sessions, meaning students had to endure the cold.

Cheering outside the test centers was prohibited this year, meaning no cheering by underclassmen for those taking the test. Testing for COVID-19 symptoms took time, so test takers had to enter their classrooms at 6:30 a.m., 30 minutes earlier than last year.

Kim Jae-hyun, who took the exam at Kyungbock High School in Seoul, said, "It was initially difficult to not be able to go to the library, but I gradually got used to it."

"The lack of traditional cheering for the test takers gives an empty feeling, but it's not bad because I can go and take the exam quietly."

Foreign media showed high interest in the administering of this year's exam, the first in Korea since the outbreak of COVID-19. Reporters from Reuters, Japan's NHK and Fuji TV, and others flocked to test centers to show the different atmosphere at this year's event.