29,181 Busan students register for 2027 college entrance exam

A total of 29,181 students in Busan have registered to sit the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test, up 298 from last year.

The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education said Tuesday that registration, conducted from Aug. 24 through Friday, yielded 19,036 current enrollment-year applicants — a drop of 916, or 4.6 percent, from last year — while the number of graduate applicants rose by 1,158 (15.2 percent) to 8,767, and applicants who passed the General Educational Development exam increased by 56 (4.2 percent) to 1,378.

In the Korean language section, which follows a common-subject-plus-elective structure, 21,152 students (73.3 percent) chose "Speech and Writing" and 7,690 (26.7 percent) chose "Language and Media." For the mathematics section, 17,555 students (63.5 percent) selected "Probability and Statistics," 9,267 (33.5 percent) chose "Calculus," and 835 (3.0 percent) opted for "Geometry."

In the inquiry section, where students may choose up to two subjects regardless of academic track, 18,272 students (64.5 percent) selected only social studies subjects, 4,159 (14.7 percent) chose only science subjects, and 5,811 (20.5 percent) combined subjects from both areas.

Among the most popular inquiry electives, the social studies subjects ranked in order were Life and Ethics, Society and Culture, Ethics and Thought, and Korean Geography, while the science subjects ranked as Earth Science I, Life Science I, Physics I and Chemistry I.

Meanwhile, 98 students registered for the vocational inquiry section, up 6 (6.5 percent) from last year, and 5,026 registered for the second foreign language section, an increase of 1,004 (25.0 percent) from 4,022 last year. The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education said it will proceed with test site assignments and candidate number issuance once the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation finalizes the list of registered applicants.