A group of South Korean students is suing the government because their college entrance exam ended 90 seconds too soon. Each of the 39 students in the lawsuit wants 20 million won (about P800,000; AED56.6k) as compensation, which is what it would cost to retake the exam for a year.
The exam, called Suneung, is a tough eight-hour test covering different subjects, and this year’s results came out on December 8.
The students say that at a test site in Seoul, the bell rang early, messing up the timing for everyone. Even though supervisors admitted the mistake before the next part of the exam, the students claim the problem continued, making it hard for them to focus on the rest of the test.
To fix the error, they were given an extra one and a half minutes during lunch, but they could only fill in blank spaces on their papers and couldn’t change their answers. Some students were so upset that they left the exam and went home.
The lawsuit says education authorities haven’t said sorry for the mistake. Officials mentioned by public broadcaster KBS said the supervisor at that test center misread the time.
This isn’t the first time students have taken legal action over an early bell. In April, a Seoul court gave 7 million won (about Php299,000; AED19K) to students who said they were at a disadvantage in the 2021 Suneung exam.
Similar things have happened in other countries too. In China in 2012, someone got a one-year suspended sentence for ringing the bell almost five minutes early during a national college entrance exam.
