The students selected by Seoul National University have ‘exploratory skills’!

Model Answers for Preparing for the 2028 College Entrance Exam and Strategies for Acceptance
How to effectively reflect your research skills in your life record through topic exploration and reading bibles.

With the 5-tiered academic performance system, how do top universities identify outstanding students? With the increasing number of universities evaluating documents in the academic performance evaluation process, as well as in the comprehensive student record screening process, and the increasing number of universities evaluating student records during regular admissions, the importance of student records continues to grow.
Universities no longer simply want students with excellent academic performance.
To select talented individuals, universities check students' research abilities through their student records, including their academic specific abilities, special skills, and creative experiential activities.
So, how can we effectively demonstrate our children's abilities and curiosity in the life sciences and help them succeed in college admissions?

Team Union Director Park Jeong-jun, a college entrance exam expert and former public education teacher, says, “It’s about exploring the topic and reading.”
As the number of items recorded in the student record and reflected in college admissions has been drastically reduced, the importance of special subjects and reading activities in college admissions has actually increased significantly.
In this situation, universities are considering and selecting students who demonstrate their experiences and efforts in career exploration and their ability to explore through “subject exploration and reading” in various on-campus activities as excellent talents.
It is important to remember that submitting a lot of reading reports by referring to a list of so-called good books does not mean that you will be evaluated as a good student.
This book will serve as a valuable guide for all parents, students, and teachers who wish to achieve success in college admissions, as it guides students to develop their capabilities independently through topic exploration and reading activities and effectively reflect these in their academic performance.

As the type of talent that future society needs changes, the type of talent that universities naturally seek also changes.
As college entrance exam trends continue to change, it is not easy for students to draw up a roadmap for the exam and prepare accordingly.
However, if we were to choose a representative competency that all universities will commonly require in future admissions, it would be none other than the ability to research.
The future talents that prestigious universities aim to cultivate must be able to face the maze with a unique perspective and creative methods unique to humans, different from artificial intelligence.
In the future, explorers who forge their own paths by expanding their knowledge in depth are more likely to successfully pass the first hurdle of the entrance exam.
---From "Introductory Remarks"

The 2022 revised curriculum is designed to foster a multidisciplinary approach for students by emphasizing interdisciplinary connections and integration.
Courses like 'Climate Change and a Sustainable World' integrate knowledge from various fields such as geography, ecology, society, and economics to deeply analyze the problem of climate change and seek solutions.
In this process, students develop the ability to understand problems from various perspectives by combining the perspectives and methodologies of each discipline and to propose creative and practical solutions.
This convergent thinking ability is essential for effectively solving the complex and interconnected problems of modern society, and can serve as a key competitive advantage for collaborating with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds and driving innovation in a global society.
---From "Expected Effects and Challenges of Self-Directed Education"

Above all, students need to have a self-directed learning attitude and learning strategies.
You must set your own learning goals, develop a study plan based on those goals, and consistently practice them while developing a metacognitive strategy to determine your learning speed and efficiency.
The method proposed for this is the ‘multi-layered learning objective strategy.’
First, divide the student's achievable goal levels into three levels.
This method involves first setting an easy goal (Easy Level) that can be achieved unconditionally and a difficult goal (Hard Level), and then setting an intermediate goal (Medium Level) between the two goals.
---From "Smart School Life Tips for Students and Parents"

Academic achievement is a factor that determines the level of academic achievement or academic progress.
In the case of comprehensive student admissions, most universities disclose the average score of all subjects as the admissions result, so students usually use the average score of all subjects as a standard when considering applications.
So, do evaluators also consider all subject grades as the most important factor in evaluating academic achievement? No.
Evaluators examine the student's achievement and grade trends in completed courses and assess potential for improvement.
Grades are primarily used as data to examine academic ability, but rather than simply evaluating grades for all subjects, various factors such as overall grades, major grades, and grades related to career paths are examined.
---From "How to Determine Excellent Students in the Comprehensive Student Selection Process"

At this time, it is necessary to demonstrate a variety of self-directed activities, but more importantly, it is not about quantity of activities, but about demonstrating one's capabilities through exploratory activities based on a deep understanding of theoretical concepts and principles.
Because universities want excellent students who can understand university courses without difficulty, they must link, expand, and deepen activities, such as demonstrating a process of understanding the concepts and principles used in inquiry activities and deepening them through follow-up inquiry.
---From "How to Determine Excellent Students in the Comprehensive Student Selection Process"

Although students are not the ones who fill out their school records, they must be aware of the evaluation criteria.
School records are evaluated based on four factors: specificity, continuity, and individual characteristics and capabilities.
Therefore, if the competencies are described abstractly or are one-time activities, it is difficult for the content to lead to a good evaluation of the student.
Students should select appropriate topics and explore them in greater depth when carrying out activities, and should strive to fully demonstrate their efforts when writing self-evaluations.
---From "Understanding the Guidelines for Filling Out School Life Records"

For example, if a student hoping to apply to the Department of Environmental Engineering is not in a science or math club, but rather a broadcasting club, they could write articles about issues related to the Department of Environmental Engineering, such as renewable energy, sea level rise, and the climate crisis, and explore related topics.
If you inform many students about the current status and problems of the issue and even offer personal opinions for a better future, it can be evaluated as a major-related activity.
Even if it is not a club related to your career path, you can think about and practice ways to demonstrate your investigative skills and self-directedness in the club you belong to.
---From "The Age of Creativity! Creative Experience Activities"

In fact, if we look at the positions of major universities, we can see that they clearly view changing career paths as a natural process.
Korea University understands that students' intellectual and career interests may change throughout high school, and stated that it does not judge students negatively if these changes are consistent.
What is important here is that there is a natural connection between your existing interests and your new career path.
Yonsei University also stated, “We view it as a natural process to discover one’s interests and aptitudes through various experiences during high school and change career paths accordingly, so there is no disadvantage in evaluation due to changing career aspirations.”
---From "Why You Should Continue Intellectual Exploration Even Without a Dream"

By continuing to explore career paths and major fields through this course program and building in-depth background knowledge, you can effectively demonstrate your abilities in class or creative activities.
After taking a course, writing a report using the prescribed format will be a great help in your academic record and interview preparation. Attending TEDx and MOOC lectures, and reading academic papers themselves aren't meant to demonstrate a student's abilities, but rather are merely tools for their use, so they can't be included in your academic record.
However, exploring topics of interest through TED talks, MOOCs, and reading academic materials is a meaningful activity that can be recorded on your school record.
---From "How to Use TED/MOOC"

From an entrance exam perspective, the core of evaluating inquiry skills is reading and topic exploration.
Reading is not simply a means of acquiring knowledge, but a resource for expanding and creatively applying one's thinking.
It also provides opportunities to encounter diverse ideas and lays the foundation for developing them into discussions or arguments.
The ability to explore through reading is the most important core competency for children who will survive in the future.
In the current college admissions process, the self-introduction form has been abolished as a measure to strengthen the fairness of college admissions, the number of factors not reflected in school records has increased, and the reading activity section has also been omitted.
However, reading is becoming more important as it is recorded in the creative experience activity section and in the detailed abilities and special skills section rather than in the reading activity section.

---From “The Beginning and End of Subject Exploration is Reading”