Without stolen tests, high school valedictorian performs poorly on final exam
Published: 18 Jul. 2025, 17:23
![A parent who faces arrest on charges including unlawful entry into a school building during exam period leaves the Andong Branch of the Daegu District Court on July 15 after attending a pretrial detention hearing. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/07/18/3046ec86-5250-4537-bf7d-20d4e26a2183.jpg)
A parent who faces arrest on charges including unlawful entry into a school building during exam period leaves the Andong Branch of the Daegu District Court on July 15 after attending a pretrial detention hearing. [YONHAP]
A high school senior in Andong, North Gyeongsang, who allegedly tried to steal exam papers with help from her mother and a former teacher, had long enjoyed top rankings in her class. But when forced to take her final math exam without advance access to the test, she scored a mere 40 points — a staggering fall from grace that cast fresh suspicion on her academic record.
The 18-year-old student, who was known for scoring nearly perfect marks on all her tests, received 40 points in math and 80 in ethics on her final exams held on July 4 without access to leaked test materials, according to a report on Friday by local media News1 citing school officials.
“It was unbelievable,” a school official said. “She usually receives perfect scores or misses one question at most.”
The scandal has angered many parents at the school.
“Were all of her previous top scores fake?” one parent asked.
“What about my daughter who studied all night to do well?” another added.
In the early hours of July 4, at around 1:20 a.m., the student’s 48-year-old mother and the 31-year-old former contract teacher who had worked at the school until February last year broke into the teachers’ office to steal test papers. The school’s security system was triggered, causing them to flee, but they were arrested on July 5.
The mother and former teacher, along with a school administrator in his 30s, have been detained. The administrator is suspected of aiding the break-in by deleting CCTV footage starting June 28 and registering the former teacher’s fingerprints into the school’s security system.
![A former contract teacher, who faces arrest on charges including unlawful entry into a school building during exam period, leaves the Andong Branch of the Daegu District Court on July 14 after attending a pretrial detention hearing. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/07/18/1a077a0a-7220-4885-8d12-76b6c6dc2ae6.jpg)
A former contract teacher, who faces arrest on charges including unlawful entry into a school building during exam period, leaves the Andong Branch of the Daegu District Court on July 14 after attending a pretrial detention hearing. [YONHAP]
The mother of the student and the former teacher first met in 2020 when the teacher was supervising the student. When the student entered high school in 2023, the former teacher was her homeroom teacher in the first year. The former teacher is also suspected of privately tutoring the student, a practice that is illegal for active teachers. Police are investigating the tutoring as well.
The teacher reportedly admitted to leaking all subject test papers to the student starting from her first year in high school. The mother of the student allegedly paid the teacher over 20 million won ($14,340) in total for these test leaks.
The school convened its academic integrity committee on Monday and decided to expel the student, nullifying all of her academic records and assigning zeros to her previous exams. The next day, the Andong branch of the Daegu District Court issued an arrest warrant for the mother following the former teacher’s detention a day earlier.
Police also booked the student without detention on Wednesday for obstruction of official duties. During questioning, the student said, “I knew something was wrong since the test was exactly the same, but I didn’t know it had been stolen.”
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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