Korean High School Education

This is a quick glimpse into a typical testing situation in a Korean public high school in the city of Cheonan, South Korea.

Student population: Approximately 1600
Class size: 40 students
Classroom description: Each classroom has 40 desks distributed into 5 rows. The rows literally touch the back and front of the classroom to fit as many students as possible in. On the hallway SIDE of the classroom there are two sliding wooden doors with frosted or tinted glass window in them, minus one that can be used to see in. The first row of desks is literally blocking both sliding doors so that students must move their desks or be sitting very close in order for anyone to get into the room. During test time, each of the rows are spaced about 2 1/2 feet apart. The floors are wooden even though this building is only about 5 years old. Also due to the poor maintenance given to the building, it already looks 20 years old. The maintenance is partially due to the students being responsible for cleaning their own class during a 20 minute cleaning period each day instead of a custodial worker. Any native English teacher in South Korea asked to  describe cleaning period would likely mention students pushing around dirty mop water for 20 minutes. There is a large chalkboard at the front of each classroom that is capable of moving up and down on vertical tracks to make viewing from the back of the room easier. Also on the front right of the classroom suspended from the ceiling is an newer, very thin, TV.

Students: The students in this particular high school are divided up into gender specific home rooms. When they attend other classes they are sometimes co-ed. During testing it is common for students to be handed 3-5 large sheets of thin gray paper on which the test is printed. The students are also handed a scan-tron bubble sheet to mark their answers on. Of course there is silence expected throughout the hour long testing period. During a testing day they usually take 3 tests with a ten minute break in between each. They also have a one hour long study period among those periods. The material for their mid-terms is written by their teachers from the material in their curriculum. Since my class is a speaking class only, I am not asked to write or grade a test for English speaking.

Questions: If you have any further questions about Korean testing in a public high school, students study habits, common practices, discipline and so on, please just ask.