Korean Adolescents' ?Examination Hell? and Their Use of Free Time

Abstract

A 15-year-old girl's daily life is a vivid testimony to the hardships the Korean high school student is faced with. She leaves home for school at 7 A. M., taking two lunch bags, one for supper, with her. After regular classes end at 5 P.M., she attends the "autonomous study classes" studying by herself until 10 P.M. The exhausted young girl returns home at about 10:30 P.M. and gets to bed around midnight at the earliest. Under the current system, this will be her life for three years. Of course, there is no guarantee she will be able to enter the university she wants. She has no family life, except for Sundays, and they hardly ever see each other, let alone get together at the dining table for dinner. People call this "ipsi chiok," entrance examination hell. ["High School Students Deprived of Spring," 1996, p. 13].

Results From South Korea’s 2016 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

“…Due to the Confucian ideologies that have influenced South Korean culture (and other East Asian countries), there is a great emphasis placed on education (ie, education fever). 31,32 Lee et al 32 described the highly competitive lifestyle of high school students studying for "examination hell," often sleeping 3 to 4 hours per day. The degree of importance placed on achieving good grades, and getting accepted at prestigious universities in Seoul, is crucial to South Koreans.…”

High rates of depressive symptoms among senior high school students preparing for national university entrance examination in Turkey

“…In South Korea where the competitive university entrance system is similar to that in Turkey, the daily life of South Korean students who are preparing for university examination is stressful (Lee, 2003), wit depressive symptoms higher in South Korea than other Asian countries. In addition, aggressive behaviors are commonly reported in Korean youth reported in association with heightened exam-related academic pressure and unplanned use of free time (Bennett, Horn, Huang, Ko, Macintyre and Wong, 2002).…”

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Insulin Resistance in Apparently Healthy Adolescents

“…Mean serum 25(OH)D was 15.8 ng/ml, while mean serum 25(OH)D level was reported as 24 ng/ml among U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 19 years [28]. Korean high school students devote large amounts of time to studying, and many attend supplemental after-school instruction [29], thus they may not receive sufficient sunlight exposure for adequate cutaneous production of vitamin D. However, we did not collect data on the amount of sunlight exposure. Health effects of insufficient outdoor activity and sunlight exposure need to be further investigated among Korean adolescents.…”