CSAT Korean Nonliterary Reading 1.

0. I resolved to write a piece about CSAT Korean nonliterary reading, so here it is. I hope it helps the many exam-takers who might happen by this writing.

1. Why CSAT Korean got harder

- Subtitle: CSAT Korean could become hard at any time.

The period when CSAT Korean began getting hard in earnest is from around 2015-2016. Even before that, there were precedents in the assessment institute's mock exams where a 1st-tier cutoff in the 80s appeared several times, so in fact making the exam 'hard' was not itself impossible. Let me briefly tease out a few meanings of the word 'hard': a low 1st-tier cutoff can be seen as 'hard,' and 'hard' due to unfamiliarity from a newly changed question type can also count. Going into sub-areas, it can be 'hard' because one or more areas among literature, grammar, speaking and writing, and reading came out hard. Of course, among these, lately the trend is for 'reading' — that is, the so-called 'nonliterary' area — to come out hard.

Was nonliterary reading easy in the past? Actually, all I can say is that even in the past there were many hard problems in nonliterary reading. Let me briefly note that on a hard question, No. 21, from a CSAT mock assessment about 10 years ago (the 2010 cycle), the correct-answer rate recorded by Mega-study private education was about 49%, and this too was a nonliterary problem. Another nonliterary problem, No. 46, likewise had a 65% correct-answer rate, and it was a nonliterary item. In fact, whether literature, reading, or grammar, there were always hard items. Shall we briefly look at those 49% and 65% problems from the CSAT of 10 years ago?

So why did it get harder? Analyzing the reasons in my own way:
1) Lengthening of passages: in the past, a single passage asked as few as 2-3, at most 4 questions. But now that's not so. Very long passages asking 5 or even 6 questions are appearing. It's been a few years since this became the case.
2) The few questions among 45: as it changed from the 'language' area to the 'Korean' area, 'Middle Korean' items were added, and