Every November, South Korea observes a near-nationwide standstill for its College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), colloquially known as the Suneung.
Businesses suspend operations, flights are rerouted to minimize noise disruption, and even the pace of morning commutes is adjusted in deference to students.
By late afternoon, the majority of test-takers emerge from school campuses, visibly relieved and greeted by awaiting family members.
However, not all students conclude the examination at this time. As darkness descends, some remain in the testing rooms, continuing until nearly 10 p.m.
These are the visually impaired students, who often require more than 12 hours to complete the extended version of the Suneung.
This Thursday, over 550,000 students nationwide are scheduled to take the Suneung—an abbreviation for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). This represents the largest applicant pool in seven years.
The examination not only determines access to higher education but can also influence career opportunities, income potential, residential location, and even future relationships.
Depending on their chosen subjects, students tackle approximately 200 questions across disciplines including Korean language, mathematics, English, social or natural sciences, a foreign language, and Hanja (classical Chinese characters used in Korean).
For most, the Suneung is an eight-hour marathon of consecutive examinations, commencing at 08:40 and concluding around 17:40.
Visually impaired students with significant visual impairments are granted 1.7 times the standard testing duration.
Consequently, if they opt for the additional foreign language section, their examination may conclude as late as 21:48—nearly 13 hours after its commencement.
The examination proceeds without a dinner break, maintaining continuous testing throughout the day.
The physical volume of braille test materials also contributes to the extended duration.
Each test booklet, with every sentence, symbol, and diagram transcribed into braille, becomes six to nine times thicker than its standard counterpart.
At Seoul Hanbit School for the Blind, 18-year-old Han Donghyun is among the students undertaking the longest version of the Suneung this year.
According to data from the Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, there were 111 visually impaired test-takers nationwide last year—99 with low vision and 12 with severe visual impairments, such as Dong-hyun.
Dong-hyun was born completely blind and has no light perception.
When the BBC met him at his school on November 7, his fingers rapidly navigated a braille practice booklet of past examination questions.
With just one week remaining before the test, his focus was on managing his stamina and overall condition. Dong-hyun will utilize braille test papers and a screen-reading computer for the examination.
“It’s really exhausting because the exam is so long,” he noted. “But there’s no special trick. I just follow my study schedule and try to manage my condition. That’s the only way.”
Dong-hyun identified the Korean language section as particularly challenging.
While a standard test booklet for this section comprises about 16 pages, the braille version extends to approximately 100 pages.
Even with screen-reading software, spoken information dissipates upon being heard, unlike visual text that can be reviewed. Dong-hyun must retain the details in his memory as he progresses.
The mathematics section presents its own set of difficulties.
He must interpret complex graphs and tables converted into braille, relying solely on his fingertips.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged improvements over past conditions. Previously, students were required to perform nearly all calculations mentally. Since 2016, however, visually impaired test-takers have been permitted to use a braille notetaker, known as Hansone.
“Just like sighted students write out their calculations in pencil, we enter them in braille on the Hansone to follow the steps,” he explained.
Another student at Hanbit School for the Blind, 18-year-old Oh Jeong-won, who will also take the Suneung this year, identified the late afternoon as “the hardest point” of the day.
“Up until lunch, it’s manageable,” he said. “But around 4 or 5pm, after English and before Korean History, that’s when it gets really tough.”
“There’s no dinner break,” he elaborated. “We’re solving problems during the time we would normally eat, so it feels even more exhausting. Still, I keep going because I know there will be a sense of accomplishment at the end.”
For Jeong-won, the fatigue is exacerbated by the necessity of maintaining intense focus with both his hands and his auditory senses.
“When I’m reading the braille with my fingers and also taking in information through audio, it feels much more tiring than it does for sighted students,” he stated.
However, the students emphasize that the examination’s length and the extensive study hours are not the most significant challenges. The primary obstacle lies in accessing study materials.
Widely used textbooks and online lectures accessible to sighted students are often unavailable to them.
Braille versions are scarce, and converting materials to audio requires text files—which are difficult to obtain. In many instances, individuals must manually transcribe entire workbooks to make them usable.
Online lectures also present challenges, as many instructors use visual notes, diagrams, and graphics on-screen that cannot be followed through audio alone.
One of the most critical barriers is the delay in receiving braille versions of the state-produced EBS preparation books—a core set of materials closely linked to the national examination.
This delay often results in visually impaired students receiving the materials months later than their sighted peers.
“Sighted students get their EBS books between January and March and study them for the whole year,” said Jeong-won. “We receive the braille files only around August or September, when the exam is just a few months away.”
Dong-hyun echoed this concern.
“The braille materials weren’t completed until less than 90 days before the exam,” he said. “I kept wishing the publication process could be faster.”
The National Institute of Special Education, which produces the braille version of EBS examination materials, informed the BBC that the process requires at least three months per book to comply with relevant guidelines.
The institute added that it is “making various efforts to ensure that blind students can study without disruption, such as producing and providing the materials in separate volumes.”
The Korean Blind Union has stated that it has consistently raised this issue with authorities and plans to file a constitutional petition demanding greater accessibility to braille versions of all textbooks.
For these students, the Suneung is more than a college entrance examination—it is a testament to the years of perseverance required to reach this point.
Jeong-won characterized the exam as “perseverance.”
“There’s almost nothing you can do in life without perseverance,” he said. “I think this time is a process of training my will.”
Their teacher, Kang Seok-ju, who has witnessed students navigate the examination each year, described the visually impaired students’ endurance as “remarkable.”
“Reading braille means tracing raised dots with your fingertips. The constant friction can make their hands quite sore,” he noted. “But they do it for hours.”
Mr. Kang encouraged his students to prioritize completion over regret.
“This exam is where you pour everything you’ve learned since the first grade into a single day,” he said. “Many students feel disappointed afterwards, but I just want them to leave knowing they did what they could.
“The exam is not everything.”