Aug 7, 2026 · 24 min · 12 segments
This week, Jeongmin and John discuss proposals to overhaul South Korea’s college entrance exam by replacing more multiple-choice questions with written responses and potentially using artificial…
John LeeHost
Jeongmin KimHost
Junho ParkHost
And South Korea has, for decades, had a very important exam that all high school students must take.
And I'm 재수생, which means I went through it twice, although the second time around, I did not really have to handle the 수능.
But basically, it's a type of test that all South Korean kids prepare for almost like 13 days.
And in North Korea, there's something called 성분, which is a type of family that you are sort of born into.
But the idea of 수능 at first, when it started, was that everybody, regardless of the 성분, you get equal chance to be successful.
But then the grade you get from Sunung becomes your new 성분 and it sort of decides your social status a little bit in the first few years of your career.
Okay, so why exactly are we talking about the Sunung today? Well, the National Education Commission, they've been talking about the Sunung and none of this is policy yet, but they are just right now floating ideas.
And one thing that they want to try to do is move away from the multiple choice sorts of questions and move on to essay type questions.
So that in and of itself, I'm totally, theoretically, I agree with the intention behind it.
Because as someone who actually did study for Suning, those are really sometimes dumb questions.
And they are, it's like over the past few decades, Suning really... became something like a like full day of trying to fight the trick questions basically
yeah and also like sometimes like the thing that you learn for Suning which is multiple subjects it's Korean and Let's see if I remember.
And then there are, you have to choose, I think, four of the social and other type of subjects.
And South Korea has, for decades, had a very important exam that all high school students must take.
And I'm 재수생, which means I went through it twice, although the second time around, I did not really have to handle the 수능.
But basically, it's a type of test that all South Korean kids prepare for almost like 13 days.
And in North Korea, there's something called 성분, which is a type of family that you are sort of born into.
But the idea of 수능 at first, when it started, was that everybody, regardless of the 성분, you get equal chance to be successful.
But then the grade you get from Sunung becomes your new 성분 and it sort of decides your social status a little bit in the first few years of your career.
Okay, so why exactly are we talking about the Sunung today? Well, the National Education Commission, they've been talking about the Sunung and none of this is policy yet, but they are just right now floating ideas.
And one thing that they want to try to do is move away from the multiple choice sorts of questions and move on to essay type questions.
So that in and of itself, I'm totally, theoretically, I agree with the intention behind it.
Because as someone who actually did study for Suning, those are really sometimes dumb questions.
And they are, it's like over the past few decades, Suning really... became something like a like full day of trying to fight the trick questions basically
yeah and also like sometimes like the thing that you learn for Suning which is multiple subjects it's Korean and Let's see if I remember.
And then there are, you have to choose, I think, four of the social and other type of subjects.
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