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Students at Inhwa Girls’ High School in Michuhol District, Incheon, work through last-minute questions on the morning of Nov. 13 as the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) gets underway. / Source: Yonhap News

The 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) English section was assessed as slightly more difficult than last year’s exam and similar in difficulty to the September mock test, with clear high-discrimination questions despite the absolute-grading system.

During a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong, Kim Ye-ryeong, lead English instructor for the EBS teachers’ panel and a teacher at Daewon Foreign Language High School, said, “This year’s English exam was a bit harder than last year’s CSAT and similar to the September mock,” noting that the test maintained the same overall direction as before.

Last year’s CSAT English saw 6.22% of students earn the top grade—relatively high under absolute grading. The previous year’s rate was 4.71%, the lowest since the system was introduced. In contrast, September’s mock test saw the top-grade share dip to 4.50%, prompting concerns about rising difficulty.

This year’s exam also included clearly differentiating questions. Items 32 and 34 (blank inference), Item 37 (text sequencing) and Item 39 (sentence placement) were highlighted as the most challenging. Kim said that students who understood the logical flow and coherence of the passages would not have struggled significantly with the indirect-writing questions.

No “killer questions” were included. Kim explained, “We excluded types that can be solved only through private-education test-taking tricks,” adding that instead of overly dense passages, the exam raised discrimination by fine-tuning the plausibility of the distractor choices. The format mirrored last year’s CSAT and introduced no new question types.

EBS linkage reached 55.6%, or 25 of the 45 questions. Of these, 12 of 17 listening/indirect-speaking questions and 13 of 28 reading/indirect-writing questions were connected to EBS materials, all through indirect linkage. Even non-linked items drew heavily from familiar themes frequently seen in EBS textbooks or everyday topics, reducing student burden.

Kim added, “Students who regularly practice identifying main ideas and vocabulary in public-education settings should have had little trouble finding correct answers,” emphasizing that while linkage was kept stable, the remaining questions were generally straightforward.

Admissions experts said the exam matched last year’s overall difficulty while being more stable than the September mock test. Jongno Academy noted, “The overall level was similar to last year’s CSAT and clearly easier than the September mock. Students likely did not feel a dramatic shift.”