Increasingly intense academic pressure in South Korea has created an environment where children as young as four years old prepare for rigorous “level tests.” (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — In a prestigious mathematics academy in Seoul’s affluent Daechi-dong district, known as South Korea’s “education capital,” an admission question for elementary students recently read: “How many times does the digit ’1′ appear in the sum of the series 9+99+999+…+99999999999999999999 (twenty 9s)?”
This was part of the academy’s notoriously difficult entry tests, initially disclosed in 2019, and which, as of 2025, are reportedly even more challenging.
Increasingly intense academic pressure in South Korea has created an environment where children as young as four years old prepare for rigorous “level tests”—dubbed colloquially as the “age 4 exam” or “age 7 exam”—to secure spots at prestigious academies.
In Daechi-dong, renowned for its hyper-competitive educational environment, some English academies use American textbooks designed for 3rd and 4th graders to instruct seven-year-olds. Many parents start enrolling their children in intensive preparatory academies while they are still in kindergarten.
This rising trend of early and intensified private education, often exceeding elementary school curricula and including middle- or high-school level mathematics and logic problems, has sparked widespread concern. Comedian Lee Su-ji recently highlighted the culture’s intensity in her satirical video depicting the pressures Daechi-dong mothers face, amassing over 5.8 million views in just two weeks.
According to experts, admission tests at elite academies frequently feature questions well beyond a child’s normal educational scope. A public high school math teacher in Seoul noted, “These tests skip foundational learning entirely, presenting middle or high-school concepts disguised in child-friendly language.”
The pressure extends beyond mathematics. Preschoolers as young as three or four attend English-language kindergartens, studying advanced American materials intended for older students. Education activists emphasize that the materials used in these academies significantly exceed the current elementary curriculum guidelines.
Official statistics indicate that 86% of elementary students nationwide—and 91.3% in Seoul alone—participated in private tutoring in 2024, with the highest participation in English and mathematics.
However, there are no public statistics documenting the scale or nature of preschool private education. The government announced plans in mid-2023 to investigate preschool private education thoroughly, but these findings have yet to be publicly released.
Education specialists warn that without comprehensive government oversight and intervention, South Korea’s private education sector risks becoming even more aggressively competitive.
“Students entering elementary school without prior private tutoring often feel immediate discouragement,” said Jeong Hye-young, a spokesperson for the Seoul Teachers Union. “Some students completely disengage from classroom learning because they’ve already learned the content privately.”
Calls are growing louder for regulatory measures to prevent further escalation. “We urgently need legal frameworks to prevent runaway competition,” said Kim Sang-woo, a researcher at World Without Worries About Private Education. “The government must take definitive action before the pressure escalates further.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
