Jonathan Pritchard, one of the world’s top scholars in the field of population genetics, Professor Bing of Stanford University, pointed out on Twitter that there was an error in the 20th question of Life Science II in Korea’s 2022 SAT science research area.

Professor Pritchard shared the commentary on the question on Twitter and wrote, “It has all the elements of collective genetics, a major college entrance exam, a mathematical contradiction, and a court injunction (interesting).”

Professor Pritchard, a member of the American Academy of Sciences, has been researching genetic variation and evolution using mathematical and statistical methods and computer algorithms.

Professor Pritchard obtained the question from a Korean examinee and asked researchers working in his lab to solve it.

The commentary shared by Professor Pritchard on Twitter was written by Researcher Matthew Aguirre, a doctoral student in this lab, after receiving questions from Professor Pritchard.

Researcher Aguirre said the problem was “absurdly difficult and, in fact, impossible to solve.”

In particular, he directly refuted the claim of the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation that ‘even if the conditions of the problem are incomplete, the answer can be given, so the validity of the question is maintained’.

Aguire pointed out, “The only reason the evaluator can come up with an answer before finding a contradiction is because the evaluator has used a particular approach, if you take another approach, you’ll run into a contradiction before you can even come up with an answer,” said Aguirre.

Solving a problem using the ‘evaluator method’ is a process of ‘betting an answer’ → ‘checking’ → ‘discovering contradictions’.

In contrast, when solving a problem using the ‘another approach’ introduced by Researcher Aguirre, inconsistencies are discovered before an answer can be found.

Researcher Aguirre strongly criticized the attitude of the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, noting that “to say that there is a valid explanation, we must intentionally keep ignoring the truth.”

Controversy over errors in the CSAT exam questions and life science issues
Life Science II No. 20, which was controversial in the SAT for the academic year 2022 held in November of this year, finds the group in which the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is maintained among groups I and II, and based on this, [보기]This is a question that evaluates whether it is possible to judge the authenticity of the

The objectors argued that the question itself was an error, and that an error in the correct answer should be acknowledged to the evaluator as there was no group that satisfies the presented conditions at the same time due to a major error in which the number of individuals in a specific group became negative (-).

Not only students studying the subject, but also teachers, hagwon instructors, and related experts expressed the opinion that the question itself was in error and that there could be no correct answer.

However, on the 29th of last month, the Evaluation Institute concluded that this question was ‘nothing wrong’, arguing, “Even if the conditions of this question are not perfect, the validity as an assessment question to discriminate the level of academic achievement is maintained.”

Accordingly, 92 candidates for Life Science II filed an administrative lawsuit along with an application for suspension of execution. I have ordered the evaluator.

At the first hearing held on the 10th, an official from the Evaluation Institute said, “Even if the number of subjects is negative, there is no problem in finding the correct answer. Even so, I can fully imagine what kind of evolution will happen to this group.”

The result of the trial of the first trial in this case is scheduled to be delivered at 1:30 pm on the 17th of this month.

(Photo=Twitter capture, provided by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, Yonhap News)

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