The number of high school graduates taking the annual college entrance exam soared to a 28-year high this year due to the planned exclusion of the so-called killer questions of highest difficulty and the popularity of medical schools. 

According to the education ministry on Tuesday, the number of people who applied for this year’s College Scholastic Ability Test(CSAT) was 504-thousand-588, down about 34-hundred from a year earlier. 

Of the total, 327-thousand or 64-point-seven percent are high school students, while nearly 160-thousand are high school graduates. 

The combined percentage of high school graduates and others marked 35-point-three percent, the largest since 1996 when it posted 37-point-four percent. 

Despite the fall in the overall number of test takers, the number of high school graduates applying for the CSAT jumped 12-point-two percent from a year ago. 

The surge is attributed to test takers’ expectations that this year’s exam will be easier than previous years as the killer questions will be excluded. The popularity of medical schools is also thought to have encouraged more undergraduates to retake the test to go to medical schools.