The June mock exam for the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), administered on June 4, has sparked criticism over an excessively difficult English section, with only 4.13% of students achieving a top grade.

Furthermore, the phenomenon known as "Satam-run"—where science-track students switch to social studies subjects—has reached its highest level since the introduction of the integrated CSAT in 2022, raising concerns that predicting scores for the actual exam in November will be more difficult than ever.

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) announced the results of the June mock exam for the 2027 CSAT on Tuesday.

According to the results, the proportion of students who received a grade of 1 in English (a raw score of 90 or higher) was only 4.13% (16,979 students).

This marks the third-lowest percentage among the 28 exams—including June and September mock exams and the actual CSAT—conducted since the absolute evaluation system for English was introduced in the 2018 academic year.

Based on June mock exams alone, it is the second-lowest figure on record.

The only instances where the English section was more difficult than this year were the June mock exam for the 2025 academic year (1.47% for grade 1) and the 2026 CSAT (3.11% for grade 1).

Analysis showed that the English section was more difficult than the Korean language and mathematics sections, which are graded on a relative scale.

The percentage of students receiving a grade of 1 was 5.38% (22,018 students) for Korean and 4.83% (19,629 students) for mathematics, both higher than the English section.

Critics point out that KICE, the agency in charge of the exam, has failed to manage the difficulty level once again.

Following the resignation of the former KICE president due to the "difficult English" controversy during last year's CSAT, the newly appointed president, Kim Moon-hee, had announced measures to address the issue, such as increasing the proportion of teachers among the exam writers to 50% starting from this June mock exam.

The "Satam-run" phenomenon, where science students switch to social studies subjects that require relatively less study time, was found to be at its most extreme since the integrated CSAT was introduced in 2022.

The number of students taking at least one social studies subject reached 348,739, accounting for 86.3% of the total, while only 55,450 students (13.7%) took only science subjects.

In particular, the number of students taking only science subjects plummeted by 45.6% compared to the June mock exam last year (101,983 students), effectively cutting the figure in half.

As a result, the number of students achieving a grade of 2 or higher in science subjects dropped sharply by 34.2% (11,689 students) compared to last year, while the number of students achieving a grade of 2 or higher in social studies increased by 7.9% (5,382 students).

This indicates that significant disparities in advantages and disadvantages have emerged regardless of student ability due to the drastic change in the applicant pool for each subject.

The admissions industry predicts that the "Satam-run" phenomenon will occur on its largest scale yet during this year's actual CSAT, which is the final year of the current integrated CSAT system.

Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongro Academy, expressed concern, stating, "With the 'Satam-run' phenomenon being so severe and information on university admissions results being very limited, students may be caught off guard by these unprecedented changes in the admissions landscape."

He added, "Students may still consider changing subjects immediately after the announcement of the June mock exam results. They should carefully weigh the opportunity costs before making any decisions."

Meanwhile, the results showed that the Korean language section was significantly easier than last year's CSAT, while the mathematics section was slightly easier.

The highest standard score for the Korean language was 132, which is 15 points lower than last year's CSAT (147).

The number of students with a perfect standard score (3,725) was approximately 14 times higher than that of last year's CSAT (261).

For mathematics, the highest standard score was 138, one point lower than last year's CSAT (139).

The number of students with a perfect score was 1,474, nearly double that of last year's CSAT (780).

The standard score is a measure that indicates how much an individual's raw score deviates from the average performance.

Typically, if an exam is difficult and the average is low, the highest standard score rises, and if the exam is easy, it falls.

A total of 411,302 students took this mock exam.

Of these, 328,242 (79.8%) were current high school students, while 83,060 (20.2%) were graduates or those who passed the high school equivalency exam.

Individual score reports will be distributed on July 1.

(Photo: Yonhap News)