Trading Delayed as 650,000 South Koreans Take College Entry Test

Trading Delayed as 650,000 South Koreans Take College Entry Test

By Heesu Lee

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) — South Korea’s stock market opens an hour later than usual and flights will be barred from take-offs and landings for 40 minutes to reduce noise as more than 650,000 students take their college entrance exams today. Police will be mobilized and rush-hour schedules for buses and trains extended to help students reach 1,257 test centers 30 minutes before the 8:40 a.m. start. The military will halt drills to avoid disturbing the candidates, for whom a high score and entry to a top university all but guarantees a prestigious job with the civil service or at one of South Korea’s chaebol, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co.Competition for college places led South Koreans to spend 19 trillion won ($17.9 billion) on private tuition last year, according to the Ministry of Education. Examiners have been secluded for a month to prevent the questions in today’s six-hour-plus exam from becoming public.

“South Korea’s zeal for education and individuals’ desire to get into a prestigious university is higher than in any other country in the world,” Kim Hye Sook, professor of education at Yonsei University in Seoul, said by phone last week. “The entrance exams play a crucial role in serving as a tool that ensures fairness and objectivity.”

Preparation for the multiple-choice test begins early. Four out of every five primary school children receive private education, often in night schools known as hagwon, according to Statistics Korea. Spending on private tuition in South Korea was the highest as a proportion of gross domestic product among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2009, according to the OECD’s latest data.

Daunting

That makes the task even more daunting for students like Kim Da Eun, who’s hoping to study humanities at top-ranked Seoul National University, the alma mater of Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo. Unable to take private tuition for family reasons, the 18 year-old from the southeast industrial city of Ulsan has been doing 15-hour school days to compete.

“I’ve been trying to sleep before 12 a.m. to pace myself until the exam,” Kim said by phone on Oct. 26. “Kids in Seoul have access to lots of private education, whereas those that live in small cities rely on school or online classes.”

The quest for a high score can be an all-family affair. Parents visit churches and temples to pray. Ten days before the exam, about 1,300 people gathered at Bongeunsa, a Buddhist temple in Seoul’s Gangnam district first built in 794, to complete a ritual 3,000 bows for good luck.

“It’s the least I can do to support my son,” Ji Young Suk, 46, said leaving morning prayers. Ji visited the temple for two hours a day since February, and moved with her family to the Daechidong area of Gangnam to be closer to the concentration of private schools.

Trying Again

About 20 percent of this year’s candidates are retaking the exam after failing or to boost their score, according to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation. They include Lee Me Sook’s son Kyu Wan, 19, applying for courses in physical education.

“I didn’t pray hard enough last year,” Lee, 53, said in an interview at Bongeunsa. “This exam can change people’s lives forever.”

To help the 650,747 candidates, Seoul Metro will expand its rush-hour schedule by two hours, while city buses will run more frequently from 6 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. Traffic is restricted within 200 meters of exam sites.

Sixty-five commercial flights have been rescheduled to avoid take-off or landing between 1:05 p.m. and 1:45 p.m. so as not to disturb the English-listening test, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The military will halt take-offs, landings and live-fire drills for 30 minutes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Late Trading

Stocks trading will begin and end an hour later, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to ease traffic congestion, Korea Exchange said. The currency market will also open an hour later at 10 a.m. and close at the usual 3 p.m., the Seoul Foreign Exchange Market Committee said in an e-mailed statement.

“Even our foreign clients don’t ask about it anymore,” said Jude Noh, chief currency trader at Suhyup Bank in Seoul. “There’s nothing unusual about it.”

The change won’t cause any unexpected market movement, said Lee Jin Woo, who helps manage $3.5 billion at Seoul-based KTB Asset Management Co.

Critics say there’s a cost to gearing so much to a single test. Every year, newspapers publish reports of suicides after students read the correct answers in the evening editions.

Worry over career and academic performance is the main reason for people aged 13-19 to consider suicide, Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said in a report this year. Suicide was the biggest cause of death among people aged 15-24 in 2011, according to the report.

‘Score-based’

As the test nears, classes shift from the official curriculum toward textbooks focused on exam-style questions, while personal development lessons morph into extra tuition in math, Ulsan student Kim said.

“Everything is very score-based,” said Park Hye Young, among the lucky students to win a place at university via interviews and school grades prior to today’s exam, avoiding the anxious wait for when results are announced on Nov. 27. The 18 year-old from Gyeonggido, next to Seoul, switched her first choice to German cultural studies from performance art production to boost her admission chances.

“The priority is getting into the university first,” she said.