CSAT D-30: “Target weak points by score band”

[Financial News] With the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test just a month away, experts advised students to focus on strengthening what they have already studied rather than taking on new workbooks. In particular, they should prioritize reducing mistakes if they are top scorers, addressing weak question types if they are middle scorers, and mastering basic concepts if they are lower scorers.
Kim Byung-jin, director of the Etoos Education Evaluation Research Institute, said in a study strategy guide for the 30 days before the CSAT, released on the 19th, that “the priorities for final-stage study should be set differently according to achievement levels in each subject, rather than overall averages.” He added, “For top-performing students, it is important to maintain the ability to tackle difficult questions while reducing mistakes, rather than focusing only on new, high-difficulty problems.” Since one or two mistakes can determine both a grade and a percentile rank, students should check that they are not getting questions wrong in types with high correct-answer rates, and organize their question-solving order and time allocation.
For middle-performing students, he recommended first studying question types they know the concepts for but often get wrong, as well as questions they could not finish because of time constraints, to increase the number of questions they can answer correctly. He advised lower-performing students to focus on mastering basic concepts and improving their accuracy on relatively easy questions rather than trying to cover too much. Repeatedly reviewing basic concepts and learning essential types of past exam questions may help them secure points, he explained.
Kim said, “If students work through several new workbooks or spend too much time on difficult questions, they may neglect to review material they have already studied.” He explained that it is effective to use past exam questions, mock exams and an error log to check question types and concepts they repeatedly get wrong. He also said students should classify the reasons for mistakes on the June and September mock assessments—insufficient understanding of concepts, misinterpretation of questions, lack of time or simple carelessness—and address each cause accordingly.
Under this year’s CSAT policy, set by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, the exam will be linked to EBS textbooks and lectures at a level of around 50% of the questions in each subject area and subject. The questions will not be copied directly; instead, the exam will use passages, charts and key concepts from the materials as an indirect form of linkage. Kim advised, “Rather than memorizing the answers in the textbooks, review the key points of major works and passages in Korean, the main topics and logical structure of texts in English, and concepts and methods of interpreting data in inquiry subjects.” He said students should select areas they do not understand well or cannot remember with confidence to study more efficiently.
Kim also said, “Preparation should vary according to the admission track you are targeting.” He said early-admission applicants should first check whether they can meet the minimum CSAT score requirement set by their target universities as a condition of admission. Based on their June and September mock assessment results, they should identify combinations of subject areas in which they are most likely to meet the requirement, and focus on shoring up weak question types in any area where they are one grade short of their target. He added that they should take care not to let scores in other areas fall by focusing exclusively on a few subjects.
He advised students primarily targeting regular admission to consider each university’s weighting for different subject areas and any bonus points awarded to applicants who take particular subjects. For example, if a student is aiming for a university that places a high weight on math, they could spend more time addressing weak question types in math. However, he cautioned them not to narrow their studies too much to fit the requirements of a particular university, but to prepare in a balanced way while considering the range of universities to which they could apply.
He stressed that full-length practice exams should be used to assess test-taking skills, not just to check scores. He explained that students should work through questions according to the actual CSAT schedule and establish their own rule for moving on to the next question after spending a set amount of time on a difficult one, which can help prevent running out of time on the exam as a whole. He added that as the CSAT approaches, it is also important to adjust wake-up and study times to match the actual exam schedule and maintain a familiar daily routine. 

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter