The 2027 school year 수능 falls on Thursday 19 November 2026. On 20 October the Education Ministry told the cabinet how the country will clear the way: later office hours, extra subway trains from 6:00, and a 25 minute hush for the English listening test.
Written by the Kverything editors from the sources below. Photograph by lee seunghyub on Unsplash.
수능 (su·neung) is short for 대학수학능력시험 (dae·hak·su·hak·neung·ryeok·si·heom), the national university entrance exam, taken once a year. This year's sitting, the exam for the 2027 school year, runs on Thursday 19 November from 8:40 to 17:45 for general candidates at 1,312 test centres in 85 districts across the country. 551,864 people have registered, 2,310 fewer than last year.
So many people sit it at once that the day has its own rules, and on 20 October the Ministry of Education reported this year's support plan to the cabinet. The government asks offices and companies to start work after 10:00 so candidates are not caught in the commute. Subway lines in the capital region run more trains between 6:00 and 8:10, the window when students travel to test sites, and police stations and other agencies park emergency vehicles along student routes. From 200 metres before each test centre, no cars go in.
The third period English listening test runs from 13:10 to 13:35. For those 25 minutes aircraft and helicopter take offs and landings move out of the window, and military training such as artillery fire and tank movements stops.
The ministry's stated aim is that no candidate reaches the gate late because of traffic, and that nothing from outside gets into the room once the papers are open. The 10:00 start for offices is a request for cooperation, as Hankyoreh and Yonhap both put it, and Yonhap notes it comes round every year.
The quiet rules run beyond the listening window. The government asks buses and trains near test centres to slow down and skip the horn, and event sites and construction near schools to keep noise down through the day. Weather too: from 13 November candidates can check the forecast for their test centre on the Korea Meteorological Administration site, and each province prepares transport for island and remote students and snow clearance plans. Sixteen provincial education offices inspect every test centre in advance. The ministry, the National Police Agency and the education offices run a security system for the question papers, and the ministry sends a liaison to every district.
Education Minister 최교진 said every ministry would pool its efforts so candidates could show what they had worked for.
If you are in Korea on 19 November, plan the morning around it. Government offices and companies open from 10:00, so appointments move later. The subway in the capital region carries the exam crowd from 6:00 to 8:10 with extra trains, so it is busy but moving. If you are driving, keep away from schools; the 200 metre cordon applies at every one of the 1,312 test centres.
If you fly that day, check your departure time. Take offs and landings shift around 13:10 to 13:35 to keep the listening test quiet, so a lunchtime flight can move. Near a school at that hour, keep your voice down; the government has asked everyone around test centres to hold the noise for the day.
For the student side of it, Yonhap's photographs from 19 October show third year students at 성지여자고등학교 in Changwon doing evening self study 31 days before the exam. The ministry's plan covers the day itself; results and admissions are not part of it.
Any school can be a test centre that morning; the 1,312 sites are spread across 85 districts and the plan does not list them. In Seoul the practical version is to avoid the streets around high schools between 6:00 and 8:40, and to be quiet near them from 13:10 to 13:35. Forecasts for each test centre go up on www.weather.go.kr from 13 November.
Do well on the exam.
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