Gangnam-gu launches intensive exam prep courses for middle schoolers

Gangnam-gu's internet education broadcasting service, Gangnam Ingang, is launching an intensive exam preparation course series for middle school students ahead of the second-semester final exams in 2026.

The courses are designed to help students focus on core concepts and problem-solving within the scope of their upcoming exams. Open to students in grades 7 through 9, the program offers 50 courses across five subjects: Korean, English, math, social studies (including history) and science.

The lineup combines midterm-and-final integrated courses with exam-specific intensive sessions, allowing students to choose courses based on their grade level, textbook and school-specific exam scope.

Standout offerings include courses built around popular commercial textbooks and restructured for exam preparation. The flagship course, an intensive midterm-and-final prep series based on the science textbook "Otu," distills the material into key concepts and exam-style problem sets. Students can use the textbook they already study from to review weaker units and work through higher-difficulty questions.

Enrollment data confirms strong demand for intensive courses in the run-up to exams. An analysis of monthly enrollment across 57 intensive middle school courses from January through September this year found that enrollment jumped roughly 2.7 times from the previous month in April and June, ahead of the first-semester exams. It rose about 2.1 times in September, before the second-semester midterms.

Park Jeong-han, a math instructor at Gangnam Ingang, advised students not to rush through as many problems as possible when finals are approaching. "What matters is accurately identifying why you got something wrong," Park said. "Use the intensive courses to review the concepts and solution steps for your weaker units, then try solving the problems again on your own without looking at the answers — that's what reduces careless mistakes when it counts."

Details on textbooks, study scope and enrollment for each course are available on the Gangnam Ingang website under the promotions board, on the page titled "2026 Second Semester Midterm and Final Intensive Courses."

Gangnam-gu District Mayor Kim Hyeon-gi said he hopes the courses will serve as a learning solution that helps students preparing for finals shore up their weak areas in a short time. "We will continue to provide high-quality learning content through Gangnam Ingang, befitting our reputation as the home of South Korea's finest public education," Kim said.