'5-time test-taker' YouTuber Mimiminu urges authorities to address AI cheating fears ahead of CSAT

College entrance exam YouTuber Mimiminu, whose real name is Kim Min-woo, has called on education authorities to consider postponing the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test, known as the CSAT.

In a video posted to his YouTube channel Monday, Mimiminu said test-takers and their parents were gripped by anxiety ahead of the CSAT scheduled for Thursday. "The bulletin board of KICE, which administers the exam, is overflowing with posts," he said. "I'm just a YouTuber, but I'm speaking up because my channel has the largest audience of test-takers."

Mimiminu urged authorities to release more concrete measures by Monday. "I strongly hope that more specific procedures will be announced — something more detailed than what had been made public as of Sunday," he said.

He added that he wanted an official announcement of specific steps to ease the anxiety of test-takers and those around them as much as possible. He appeared to choke up with emotion at several points during the video.

Citing the case of a tax accountant licensing exam, Mimiminu said it exposed gaps in the supervision of national examinations. "Many experts and those involved were nearly certain something was wrong, yet proctors said they had not caught any cheating — and ultimately the top scorer turned themselves in, admitting they had cheated using a micro-camera, a smartphone and generative AI," he said. "This proves that oversight of state-administered exams has been inadequate."

He also said that, according to various accounts, devices as small as a coat button or a bracelet, worn somewhere on the body, were sufficient to use AI functions to answer exam questions.

Mimiminu then raised the possibility of postponing the CSAT, noting that the exam had been delayed by one day in 2017 due to an earthquake in Pohang — with the decision coming the day before it was scheduled. "A postponement is possible even the day before," he said. "In 2020, it was pushed back two weeks because of COVID-19 and held in December."

"It may or may not be postponed — that decision rests with the education authorities," he said. "There is room under the law to change the schedule, and this review needs to happen as soon as possible."

The government has banned all electronic devices from exam venues for this year's CSAT, including smart glasses equipped with AI functions. Merely wearing smart glasses during the exam will void that sitting and strip the student of eligibility to take the following year's CSAT. Referrals to investigative agencies will also be made.

The Ministry of Education will station dedicated smart-glasses detection personnel at all 1,312 exam venues nationwide. Following the confession by the top scorer of the tax accountant exam, Cheong Wa Dae held an emergency countermeasures meeting Sunday and decided to conduct a full review of suspected AI cheating cases across all national qualification exams, as well as to inspect all test-takers for AI devices on the day of the CSAT.

The government will hold a vice-ministerial meeting of related ministries, chaired by the prime minister, to discuss additional measures Monday.

Teachers have also raised concerns that the countermeasures focus too narrowly on smart glasses. The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations said in a statement: "New devices and methods keep emerging, and we cannot ask teachers — who are responsible for supervising an entire exam room — to identify each one by sight. Authorities must present inspection measures that cover cheating with devices other than smart glasses."

Mimiminu gained wide recognition among test-takers after gaining admission to Korea University on his fifth attempt at the CSAT.