EBS link rate held at 50%; results to be issued Dec. 11
Score estimate sheet to be printed on back of admission ticket starting this year
Possession of smart glasses and other electronic devices constitutes cheating
Qualifying computer-use pens may be brought from home
![A computer-use pen sits on a desk at a test site set up at Gyeongbok High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the day of the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test. [Joint Press Corps]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/30/news-p.v1.20251117.2f9e7fc1f9eb4815a471e22f0381a226_P1.png)
By Kim Yong-jae, The Herald Business
The 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) will be held Nov. 19, with results sent to examinees on Dec. 11. Starting this year, a score estimate sheet will be printed on the back of each admission ticket, allowing students to fill it in during the exam.
The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) announced the detailed implementation plan for the 2027 CSAT on Tuesday. KICE said the exam will be set in line with the content and level of the high school curriculum, with questions designed so that students who have faithfully followed school education and supplemented it with EBS-linked textbooks and lectures can solve them. The institute said it will also secure appropriate differentiation by taking into account the results of the June and September mock exams and the characteristics of each subject area.
The link between EBS CSAT textbooks and lectures and the actual exam will be maintained through an indirect method, with the link rate held at 50 percent based on the number of questions per subject area. KICE plans to enhance students' sense of connection by drawing on materials such as charts, illustrations and passages from the linked textbooks.
The exam covers six subject areas: Korean language, mathematics, English, Korean history, elective subjects, and a second foreign language or classical Chinese. Korean history is a mandatory area that all examinees must sit. Failure to do so will invalidate the entire exam entry and result in no scores being issued.
Korean language and mathematics will follow the existing "common subjects plus elective subjects" structure. Elective options for Korean language are speech and composition, and language and media; for mathematics, they are probability and statistics, calculus and geometry.
In the social studies and science elective areas, students may choose up to two subjects from 17 options regardless of whether they fall under social studies or science. English, Korean history, and the second foreign language and classical Chinese areas will be graded on an absolute scale.
Online pre-registration for the exam will run from Aug. 20 to Sept. 3, and score report cards will be distributed on Dec. 11. Current students will receive their score report cards at their schools on that day. Graduates and those who passed the equivalency exam may obtain their score report cards online from 9 a.m. on Dec. 11.
A number of convenience improvements for examinees will also take effect this year. A score estimate sheet printed on the back of the admission ticket will allow students to fill it in during the exam, though completing the sheet after the end-of-exam bell will be treated as cheating.
Students will also be permitted to bring their own black computer-use pens from home. Test sites will continue to provide black computer-use pens as before, but students who meet the requirements may use their own. Mobile phones, smartwatches, smart glasses, tablets, earphones and any other items with communication functions or electronic displays will be banned from test sites, and possession of such items will be treated as cheating.
KICE will run an objection process for questions and answers before announcing the final answer key on Dec. 1.
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