South Korea dialled down the volume on Thursday as more than half a million students sat for a crucial national university entrance exam, with authorities taking extraordinary measures to minimise possible distractions.
The college entrance test is the culmination of South Korea’s highly demanding school system.
According to the Education Ministry nearly 5,95,000 students took the exam this year, known as “suneung” and stretching over nine hours.
Extraordinary measures were taken nationwide to remove anything that could disturb the test-takers.
Public offices, major businesses and the stock market opened an hour later than usual to help ease traffic and ensure students arrived on time for the exam, which began nationwide at 8.40 a.m. All takeoffs and landings at South Korean airports were suspended for 25 minutes to coincide with an English listening test, and all airborne planes asked to maintain an altitude higher than 3,000 m.
The Transport Ministry said 134 flights had to be rescheduled because of the exam.
