Because of the name "2028 reform", many treat it as a distant matter. But the five-band grading system is already in force. The transcripts of students currently in high school are being produced under it.

First check whether it applies to your child

The criterion is simple: students who became Year 10 in 2025 onwards. It began alongside the full application of the 2022 revised curriculum to high schools.

Set out as of July 2026, it looks like this.

• Currently Year 12 — 2027 admissions. The existing system applies (nine bands, CSAT with elective subjects).
• Currently Year 11 — 2028 admissions. The first cohort under the reform.
• Currently Year 10 — 2029 admissions. The new system continues.
• Currently in middle school — will experience only the new system from the point they enter.

What the five-band system actually changes

The biggest change is the width of each band. The distribution across the five bands is as follows.

• Band 1: 10 per cent
• Band 2: 24 per cent (cumulative 34 per cent)
• Band 3: 32 per cent (cumulative 66 per cent)
• Band 4: 24 per cent (cumulative 90 per cent)
• Band 5: 10 per cent (cumulative 100 per cent)

Under the old nine-band system, band 1 was the top 4 per cent. That has widened to 10 per cent. It means fewer situations in which a single question decides a band, and at the same time it means more students inside the same band 1. A stretch appears in which school grades alone struggle to discriminate.

The other thing not to miss is that the absolute and relative grades are recorded together. Even with an attainment of A, the relative band is recorded alongside, so grade inflation is not a way around it.

Elective subjects disappear from the CSAT

The existing CSAT had candidates choose elective subjects in Korean and mathematics, and choose subjects in the inquiry areas as well. The problem of the same raw score producing different standard scores depending on the elective chosen was raised repeatedly.

The reform abolishes elective subjects in Korean, mathematics and the inquiry areas in favour of an integrated format. The inquiry areas become integrated social studies and integrated science. Advanced mathematics — calculus II and geometry — was discussed as a paper for high-achieving science candidates, but it was decided that it would not be included.

Korean, mathematics and the inquiry areas keep the nine-band relative system. Moving school grades to five bands does not mean the CSAT's band count falls too. The two are frequently confused.

What parents actually have to judge now

When a system changes, the private education market immediately produces a message about "how it has to be done now". Yet looking at the direction of the reform, some things have become simpler.

That elective subjects have gone means there is less to be gained from subject-choice strategy. That band 1 has widened means the pressure of extreme band competition has eased somewhat. At the same time, the dominant view is that as school grades discriminate less, the CSAT and the record made inside lessons become relatively more important.

Because this is bound up with the high school credit system, choosing subjects on the connection to a direction rather than on calculations of advantage fits the new system better. What in the school record is actually used in admissions is set out separately in High School.

In summary

The 2028 reform is not a forecast but a change already under way. The five-band system applies from the 2025 Year 10 cohort, so students now in Years 11 and 10 are inside it. Two things to establish: which system your child falls under, and the fact that school grades use five bands while the CSAT keeps nine.