The most important school examination of the year took place across South Korea on Thursday, with the whole nation grinding to a halt in support of test takers. In a country where competition for the top university slots is incredibly fierce, flights were grounded and the stock market opened later as hundreds of thousands of students sat down to take a test that would determine their academic future.
Our Monica Chin has the details.

Report: South Korea’s college entrance exam ran for nine hours on Thursday, with various sectors of the country grinding to a halt to help facilitate the high-pressure process.

Almost half a million people arrived across some one-thousand-300 test sites in the early morning to sit for the state-administered college entrance examination.

Preparations had already been underway for several days at that point. 

The proctors began handing out the tests on Monday, with papers driven to and carried into venues under tight security. 

Students had already made preliminary visits to their test sites on Wednesday to ensure they could reach their location and that their tickets were correctly marked.

Thursday's test began with a Korean language section at 8:40, followed by math, English, Korean history, science and a foreign language.

The whole country hushed as the process kicked off.

The opening of regular trading on the Korea Exchange, as well as major banks and the foreign exchange market, was postponed by an hour as a traffic measure to ensure that test takers could get to their venues without encountering rush-hour traffic.

Flights were barred from taking off or landing between 1:05 and 1:40 p.m., the time of the English listening comprehension portion, in order to prevent aircraft noise from interfering with performance.

Test takers will be on tenterhooks for a few weeks, with exam results set to be released on December 5.
Monica Chin, KBS World Radio News.