Court suspends validity of answer to disputed CSAT question

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Yonhap) -- A court on Thursday suspended the validity of the state-recognized answer to a bioscience question in this year's college entrance exam in a lawsuit filed by exam takers claiming the question has errors.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of 92 examinees disputing question No. 20 of the bioscience part 2 section of this year's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) developed by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE).

The ruling means the state-designated answer to the question is not valid until a decision is made on whether the question is erroneous or not. Following the ruling, the KICE stopped notifying exam takers of their scores.

The examinees have argued the question centering around the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, a principle related to population genetics, was erroneous and have launched a suit against KICE to rescind the agency's designated answer.

The court ordered the KICE to suspend the validity of the question until the suit is settled in court.

KICE last month concluded the question, while not being perfect, was valid, as it was meant to distinguish the level of learning among examinees.

odissy@yna.co.kr
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