(in italiano sotto)
Every year in November, South Korea holds the college entrance exam, called Suneung or also CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test), which lasts 9 hours and involves about 500.000 students. This year it was held on November 17, 2023.
For young South Koreans, it represents a very important step that will decide their future: depending on their results, they will either be able to enter the most prestigious universities, the so-called SKY (Seoul University, Korea University and Yonsei University), or they will have to scale back their own expectations and (especially) those of their parents.
South Korean society is characterized by a very high level of competition, touching on school, university, work, and even aesthetics. Young people find themselves growing up with the same ideals in mind and passing through compulsory stages: the best grades to get into the best universities that will lead to the best jobs. The country pushes young people toward an alienating and surreal standardization, the exact opposite of what happens in many Western countries, where success is achieved by standing out from the crowd.
For this reason, Suneung represents the most stressful time in a South Korean student's life. The psychological pressure on girls and boys is enormous, even in the family environment, the stress level is extremely high, and failure can lead to serious consequences such as depression, social isolation, alcoholism or suicide (South Korea is one of the countries with the highest suicide rate in the world).
To make it easier for students to cope with the exam, the South Korean government takes various measures, such as changing airline flight schedules so that they do not disturb with their noise, especially during the conduct of the English test. Businesses and government offices open only after the exam has begun, to prevent students from encountering traffic and arriving late. Cabs are free for the entire test day. Police officers are made available to drive those students to school who are in danger of arriving late and missing the test.
