Anchor: The highly-competitive annual College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) is taking place across South Korea on this Thursday. But exam takers this year are facing a double whammy of the high-stress college entrance exams and a raging coronavirus epidemic. Test takers include dozens of COVID-19 patients who are taking the exam at separate venues.  
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: Some 490-thousand students in South Korea, including dozens of confirmed COVID-19 patients, are taking the nationwide College Scholastic Ability Test, or CSAT on Thursday.

Arriving at test venues, students confessed that the coronavirus outbreak made them even more nervous as they face what is probably the most important standardized test in their lives. 

[Sound bite: Hong Jeong-hee - high school senior, Shindorim High School (Korean/English translation)]
"Since people are gathered together for the test, I brought an extra face mask just in case to protect myself from infection. I was really nervous in the morning but after arriving here, I am less nervous." 

[Sound bite: Shim Eun-bee - high school senior, Shindorim High School (Korean/English translation)] 
"I am a bit shaking. I am nervous cause I could get infected by eating next to an infected person." 

[Sound bite: Kim Chae-eun - high school senior (Korean/English translation)]
"This exam is important because Korean society makes you study your whole life up till this point for this one exam. I think it will be hard taking the exam because of the mask and the plastic divider but since I’ve always been wearing a mask while preparing for the exam in study rooms, I think I’ll be okay. I’m actually quite relieved now that it’s all going to be over soon." 

The annual exam was initially scheduled for November 19, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watching their children entering test venues, some parents said they are relieved to see the exam finally taking place. 

[Sound bite: Kim Sun-wha - 49, family member of an examtaker (Korean/English translation)]
"If the exam was further delayed, then students would feel much more psychological burden and undergo much more inconvenience. Although (the exam) was once postponed, I still think it's good that the exam is taking place normally. I hope that students do their best and get good results."

While the number of applicants fell to a record low this year, the Education Ministry expanded the number of testing sites to include medical facilities, as a means to accommodate test-takers who either tested positive or are in self-quarantine. 

Authorities have made preparations to ensure that the highly-competitive university entrance exams are administered under strict quarantine, requiring students to have their temperatures checked before entering test sites and wearing masks through the exam. Partitions have been set up on each desk to maintain distancing.

Students aren't the only ones that are impacted by the virus. In the central city of Daejeon, 19 proctors were replaced, after one tested positive on Wednesday.

As done in previous years, the government has banned military exercises and airplane departures and landings during the English-language listening portion of Thursday's test. People have been asked to come into work late to clear roads for the test-takers.

But what was unusual this year was the absence of families and fellow students cheering on the test-takers as they entered test sites or parents waiting nervously outside all day braving the near-freezing cold.

Health authorities, meanwhile, urged students to avoid gatherings with family and friends even after the exam, considering the gravity of the current COVID-19 situation.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.