Seoul, Nov 14 The annual college entrance exam was to kick off nationwide on Thursday, with a record number of retakers driven in part by an increase in medical school admissions.
A total of 522,670 students, including high school seniors and graduates, were registered to take the state-administered College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), up 18,082 from last year, reports Yonhap news agency.
High school seniors numbered 340,777, accounting for 65.2 per cent of the total, while graduates numbered 161,784, the largest figure since 2003.
Many of the graduates, or around 93,195 people, were believed to be first-year university students taking another shot at the exam to get into a better school next year, according to Jongro Academy.
The large number of graduates has been attributed to the increase in the medical school quota next year, with 39 medical schools nationwide planning to accept a combined 4,610 students, up 1,497 from this year.
The increase comes after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration decided to add around 2,000 slots per year over the next five years to address a shortage of doctors.
The CSAT is one of the nation's most important academic events, as getting into a prestigious university is considered a prerequisite for a good career path down the line.
In keeping with its policy, the government has said extremely difficult "killer" questions will be excluded from this year's exam.
The test will run from 8:10 a.m. until 5:45 p.m., during which time the authorities will control noise levels outside 1,282 examination sites nationwide.
During the English listening evaluation portion from 1:05 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., all aircraft takeoffs and landings will be prohibited, with the flight schedules of 156 aeroplanes adjusted during this time.
All aircraft in flight, excluding those in emergency situations, must also remain in the air at an altitude of 3 kilometres or higher, while military exercises causing excessive noise will be temporarily halted.
The Seoul metropolitan government said morning rush hour subway operations will be extended to 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., from the regular 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., to help test-takers get to their test sites on time.
Police will also deploy over 10,000 personnel to escort exam papers to and from testing sites and maintain order and stability around schools.
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