Suneung, South Korea's national college entrance exam that many believe defines their life, is over. But for many Korean students, the next step is not relaxing at home or taking a trip abroad; it's hopping onto a motorcycle.
As universities pack second-round entrance exams with in-person essay tests that evaluate logical reasoning and written argumentation into the days following the national test, students are taking quick-service bikes to speed between campuses with hopes of making it to the next test on time.
For competitive majors, these essay exams can make or break a student’s chances, meaning many students try to sit for as many schools as possible.
Across campuses this weekend, the scene repeated itself like a post-Suneung ritual. As soon as the morning essay test ended at one university on Sunday, hundreds of motorcycles revved their engines in unison outside the front gate.
These aren't private chauffeurs. They’re quick-service delivery riders — the same drivers who normally carry documents, packages or food — now ferrying test takers at premium rates from one campus to another so they can squeeze in as many college essay exams as possible into a single day.
“I know it’s dangerous, but if I want to take even one more exam, I have no choice but to pay 100,000 won ($68) and get on,” said a 21-year-old test taker surnamed Choi, who had exams at both Kyunghee University and Korea University on the same day. “Public transportation, like buses and subways, is not an option, and a taxi would never make it in time,” she added.
With universities clustering their essay exams tightly into the first and second weekend after Suneung, students are forced into a high-speed relay across the city — a morning exam on one campus, an afternoon exam on another, sometimes with barely an hour in between.
Parents, caught between fear and necessity, describe the moment they hand their child over to a stranger on a motorcycle as one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of the admissions season.
“It’s terrifying,” said one mother. “This is my most precious child, and I’m putting her on the back of a motorcycle with someone I’ve never met. But what choice do we have? She must take the exam.”
She also recalled being scolded by a test-prep academy for even considering taking the bus. “The hagwon teacher told me, ‘What are you talking about? You must take a quick motorcycle or you won’t make it.’”
As demand spikes, so do the prices. A single trip from Kyung Hee University to Sungkyunkwan University can cost around 130,000 won, nearly ten times the normal quick-delivery rate.
When searching for “essay exam” and “quick delivery” together, countless ads surface online. Many services offer guaranteed arrival times, “within 18 minutes,” one quotes around 80,000 won for the 6-kilometer trip between Kyung Hee University and Hanyang University. The journey takes nearly 50 minutes by public transportation.
But behind the frantic rides are growing safety concerns.
"I was terrified the entire way," a test taker who took such service last year told The Korea Herald. "Sometimes motorcycles cut between lanes, speed through narrow gaps, and race ahead of buses on dedicated transit roads," he said.
"I had bigger goals then: to make it in time. But thinking back, some moments were really dangerous," he recalled.
Experts warn of a potential tragedy if such actions lead to an accident, noting that many delivery motorcycles are not fully insured for passengers and that compensation, in the event of injury, is often unclear or nonexistent.
There is also a legal gray area. Carrying a person on a motorcycle for commercial purposes can be punishable by imprisonment under current law. Yet, police rarely intervene, as there is no clear regulatory basis for cracking down on such actions.
Still, the industry and the students meet every year in this strange alignment of incentives: riders who expect their highest earnings of the year, and students who feel they simply cannot afford to miss a single exam.
More essay exams await next weekend at Hanyang University, Chungang University, Ewha Women's University, Sejong University, and so on, meaning the annual “quick-service marathon” for students and parents is likely to continue.
jychoi@heraldcorp.com
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