By Soh Ji-young
Staff Reporter

The Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation (KICE) on Monday acknowledged that a controversial problem on the state college entrance exam it administered earlier this month had two correct answers.

This is the first time education authorities have admitted making a mistake since the first administration of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in 1994.

KICE’s decision to publicly note the error has introduced confusion with the possibility of a major delay in announcing test scores, as re-marking and re-processing the more than 630,000 results is now inevitable.

The outcome deals a serious blow to the credibility of the CSAT and the controversy is only expected to deepen as demands to nullify other test questions are expected to pour in now that the door has been opened.

To this point, students have questioned the authenticity of more than 20 other CSAT problems.

Although contrite regarding the error, officials were steadfast in their support of the rest of the test, and denied that any setbacks in processing would occur.

``After gathering opinions from various academies and KICE advisors, we decided to acknowledge as correct the fifth answer as well as the original third answer for the 17th question in the Korean language section,’’ KICE president Lee Jong-seung said in a press conference.

He made it clear, however, that no other corrections will be made, saying that every question receiving criticism after the test was scrutinized carefully with the original answers being validated in each case.

``The grading of the CSAT scores will be conducted with no delays and all test takers will receive their scores on Dec. 2 as planned,’’ Lee said.

The dispute first surfaced when students began to express concern regarding the answer of the 17th question in the Korean language section. The question asked about the similarities between a poem by Korean Baek Sok called ``Hometown’’ and the Greek legend of ``Minotaur’s Labyrinth.’’

The third answer, the ``door of the labyrinth,’’ was initially announced as the correct answer, but now the fifth answer, ``string’’ will also be recognized as correct.


jysoh@koreatimes.co.kr