- Standardized test scores aren't either the culprit or the panacea for the privatization of education. No matter what the process of selecting students is, there will always be cram schools willing to exploit that process to the maximum degree. Korea in fact has another way to enter college without that single exam (called _susi_, it's basically your GPA + portfolio + cover letter), which is less well known than the default route (called _jungsi_). And guess what, there are a shit-ton of crams schools for that too. There are cram schools solely for entering International Math/Physics Olympiads, because they are one of the several ways to enter Medical School, which are the hardest type of colleges you can try in Korea. There are cram schools for art college examimations, cram schools for your high school GPA, cram schools for entering science/writing contests (so you can lengthen your portfolio), cram schools for just anything you can imagine related to college admissions.
- It's becoming more and more of a lie in Korea that simply entering a good university will automatically land you a good job, especially in the non-STEM sectors. Humanities students in top universities are now scrambling to get good GPAs, TOEFL scores, and any activities that would lengthen their portfolio, simply because jobs are very scarce even for them. A lot of them are preparing for government administration jobs which would give them good job security. And guess what, those jobs are also determined by a single test, how tragic! Same goes for law schools, medical universities, etc... As a Korean, you'll almost never leave the perpetual requirement of nonsensical tests and competitions for quite some time even after high school, it's pretty harrowing.