Korean S.A.T. day

Today's the day that Korean high school students take the College Scholastic Ability Test (their version of the S.A.T. exam). It's practically a national holiday.

For example, to be sure that the nearly 600,000 high school seniors get to their test sites on time government offices, private business and even the stock market open late in order to reduce traffic. There's an expanded morning rush hour schedule on the subways, and cars are banned from parking within 200 meters of testing sites.

Female test proctors have to follow a dress code that prohibits noisy high heels and strong perfume so the test takers won't be distracted.

And domestic flights are not permitted to take off or land from 8:40 to 8:53am, when the test begins, and 1:10 to 1:30pm, when the listening portion is conducted.

I'm not making this stuff up. Really.

Students are prohibited from carrying cell phones, MP3 players, or any other electronic devices, except a watch. From what I've seen here, this may require surgery to separate cell phones from their bodies.

For more on the culture of entrance exams here, you can check out this article: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2882868