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Court orders to rescore last year’s civil servant examination

Court orders to rescore last year’s civil servant examination

Posted December. 18, 2018 07:37,   

Updated December. 18, 2018 07:37

한국어

A court ordered to rescore a civil servant examination, which took place in December last year, due to an error in a Korean history problem. If the ruling becomes final, there could be a change of scoring and the list of the successful applicants can be changed.

Seoul Administrative Court on Monday ruled in favor of the plaintiff surnamed Im, who filed suit against the Seoul Metropolitan Office to nullify his grades that were affected by the question. He applied for a Grade-9 civil servant post at the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2017.

Im claims that there was an error in the question number 5 in Korean history. The question was about choosing one example that was not explaining about the Goguryeo Dynasty. The Seoul Metropolitan Office said the right answer was the example number one, where it said, “People would tell their fortune from a cow hoof before going to a war.” But Im claims that some historical records and the state-designated history textbook in the sixth educational curriculum introduce telling a fortune from a cow hoof as one of Goguryeo’s customs.

“It is hard to conclude that there wasn’t such a custom in Goguryeo judging from various historical records, and the examiner made the question controversial by failing to mention a certain historical source," the court’s ruling said. “There is a high possibility that Im will be accepted at the Seoul Metropolitan Office if the Korean history test papers are re-graded.”


Yoon-Su Kim ys@donga.com