SEOUL, November 11 (AJP) - South Korea’s once-a-year college entrance exam has a new worry hiding in plain sight: glasses that could give students access to artificial intelligence along with a clearer view of the questions.
For teachers supervising the test, spotting a concealed camera is only part of the challenge. Inspecting a suspicious pair of frames could disturb a roomful of students who have spent years preparing for a single day — and leave the teacher facing angry parents or legal complaints.
“Some parents complain that even the sound of a teacher breathing disturbed their child and ruined the exam,” a teacher told AJP, requesting anonymity and the withholding of their school’s name. “That is why so many teachers are reluctant to
supervise the CSAT.”
The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), known in Korean as the Suneung, carries enormous weight in university admissions.
Its importance is visible far beyond the school gates: offices are encouraged to open late, extra public transportation is provided and aircraft movements are restricted during the English listening test.
This year, protecting that carefully managed quiet also means looking more closely at what students are wearing on their faces.
Eight days before the Nov. 19 examination, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education held special training Wednesday for 239 inspectors assigned to the capital’s test centers. Their task is to distinguish ordinary eyewear from devices that can photograph questions, transmit information and connect users to AI systems.
The training includes examining actual devices and learning how cameras, microphones, speakers and other components can be concealed in otherwise conventional-looking frames. Nationwide, specialized personnel will be deployed at all 1,312 CSAT examination centers.
The concern has already moved beyond a theoretical possibility. An Education Ministry investigation released Monday identified four cases involving smart glasses in middle and high school examinations this year. Similar incidents were uncovered during university entrance examinations at Yonsei University and the University of Seoul in October.
South Korea has confronted technologically assisted cheating before. In 2004, a major scandal exposed students exchanging answers by mobile phone during the national examination. More than two decades later, some of those capabilities can fit into an accessory that students ordinarily need to read the test paper.
Smartphones must be surrendered before the examination. Smart glasses present a harder identification problem: supervisors must first recognize that an apparently ordinary pair of glasses is an electronic device.
For now, that judgment will depend largely on human eyes.
No specialized radio-frequency detectors designed for smart glasses will be distributed nationwide for this year’s test. Existing metal detectors remain available for prohibited-item inspections, while the Education Ministry is reviewing equipment under development for possible use from 2027.
The procedures reflect the competing demands of catching cheating and preserving concentration. Before a session begins, a candidate suspected of wearing smart glasses may be asked to remove them and place them on a desk for inspection.
Uncertain cases can be referred to examination center officials and education authorities.
Once the test is underway, however, supervisors who notice suspicious eyewear are instructed to wait until the session has ended and papers have been collected before conducting checks.
For the teacher who spoke to AJP, even deciding to inspect a pair of glasses raises uncomfortable questions.
“If I suspect a student is wearing smart glasses and inspect them, catching someone cheating would obviously justify my decision,” the teacher said.
“But what happens to the other students whose concentration I may have disrupted? Wouldn’t I be held responsible for that?”
That anxiety is widespread. In an October survey of 2,716 middle and high school teachers by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, 82.3 percent said identifying smart glasses under the supervision procedures then available would be difficult. Another 64.4 percent were concerned about complaints or disputes if ordinary glasses were mistaken for prohibited devices.
Past examination disputes help explain the hesitation, although they did not involve smart-glasses inspections.
According to Education Ministry data submitted to lawmaker Jin Sun-mee’s office in 2025, 12 lawsuits related to CSAT supervision were filed over the preceding five years. About half concerned errors in examination bell timings.
In one case, a closing bell rang roughly three minutes early at a Seoul examination center during the 2020 CSAT. Papers were collected, then returned with additional time after the mistake was discovered. Students argued that the interruption had broken their concentration.
An appellate court in April 2023 ordered the state to pay 7 million won to each of eight students for emotional distress. It did not hold the teacher personally liable. A separate early-bell incident during the 2023 CSAT also resulted in state compensation for affected students.
Enforcing the rules can bring more personal consequences. During the 2023 examination, a teacher reported a candidate for attempting to continue marking answers after the final bell. The student’s father later confronted the teacher and protested outside the teacher’s school, demanding dismissal.
In September 2025, an appellate court sentenced the parent to six months in prison, suspended for two years, for offenses including intimidation and defamation. It also ordered 80 hours of community service.
Against that backdrop, teachers’ organizations argue that detecting sophisticated electronics cannot rest entirely on an individual supervisor’s judgment. The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations has called for clearer procedures and stronger protection for teachers facing complaints arising from inspections.
Authorities have provided routes for inspectors to seek further assessments and expanded liability insurance for examination supervisors to cover up to 200 million won per covered incident. How that coverage would apply specifically to disputes over smart-glasses inspections has not been publicly established.
Authorities are also turning to penalties as a deterrent. Smart glasses are explicitly prohibited in this year’s CSAT. Using or wearing them during the examination can invalidate results and bar a candidate from the following year’s test. Bringing prohibited equipment into an examination room without surrendering it before the test can also invalidate the examination.
The Education Ministry is seeking to extend the disqualification period for serious cheating from one year to three years and has warned of possible criminal proceedings in deliberate or organized cases. Tougher penalties, however, do little to help a teacher identify a tiny camera inside a frame.
A Seoul education office official told AJP that detailed inspection methods would not be disclosed because candidates planning to cheat could exploit the information. The office said inspections would follow ministry guidelines.
On Nov. 19, teachers will have to put those guidelines into practice. In a country that quiets aircraft for its college entrance exam, they face a delicate task at desk level: looking closely enough to protect the test’s fairness while leaving students undisturbed enough to take it.
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