🚨 Korean Medical License Exam: Additional Exam Controversy for 4th-Year Medical Students and Healthcare Workforce Training System

Today Korean Social News | 2025.07.23

📌 Medical School Deans Propose Additional Exam for 4th-Year Students…"Must Prevent Medical Gap vs Favoritism Controversy Continues"

💬 The Council of Medical School Deans has decided to ask the government to hold an additional Korean Medical License Examination for 4th-year students. This proposal is meant to help students who couldn't meet the regular exam schedule due to medical school enrollment increases and resident doctor strikes, but it has also sparked favoritism debates. The Ministry of Education said it will discuss the matter once medical school deans present a common plan. However, a related petition has received nearly 50,000 signatures, pointing out fairness issues, and social controversy continues. The medical community worries about healthcare workforce shortages, but citizens are raising their voices against it, citing fairness concerns.

Summary

• The Korean Medical License Exam is a national test that must be passed to become a doctor and is held only once a year.
• The Council of Medical School Deans plans to ask the government to hold additional exams for 4th-year students.
• Both preventing healthcare workforce shortages and fairness controversies are being raised simultaneously, causing ongoing social conflict.

1️⃣ Definition

Korean Medical License Exam means the national examination that must be passed to become a doctor. Its official name is 'Korean Medical License Examination', and it is the test that medical school graduates or graduating students must take to obtain a medical license.

This exam serves as an important gateway to verify the expertise and qualifications of medical professionals to protect people's lives and health. It consists of practical and written tests, and both must be passed to obtain a medical license.

💡 Why is it important?

• It verifies medical professionals' expertise to protect people's lives and health.
• It serves as an essential condition for obtaining a medical license and controls healthcare workforce supply.
• It is an important mechanism for maintaining the quality level of medical services.
• It is a system that ensures fairness and transparency in entering the medical field.

2️⃣ Structure and Eligibility of the Korean Medical License Exam

📕 Exam Structure and Operating Method

• The Korean Medical License Exam consists of two parts. The main components are as follows:

  • The practical exam (CPX: Clinical Performance Examination) recreates actual medical situations.
  • The written exam is a multiple-choice test that evaluates overall medical knowledge.
  • The practical exam evaluates clinical skills using standardized patients.
  • The written exam comprehensively covers basic medicine, clinical medicine, and medical laws.
  • Both tests must be passed to obtain a medical license.

• Strict principles apply to exam operations. The main features are as follows:

  • It is held only once a year as a basic principle.
  • It is conducted by the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute.
  • It takes place simultaneously at test centers in various regions nationwide.
  • The passing standard uses absolute evaluation, requiring a certain score or higher.
  • If you fail, you can retake it the next year, but there's a limit of 6 months after graduation.

📕 Eligibility and Requirements

• There are clear standards for eligibility. The main requirements are as follows:

  • Medical school graduates or graduating students can take the exam.
  • Graduating students must graduate within 6 months from the exam date.
  • Foreign medical school graduates must pass a separate preliminary exam to be eligible.
  • All courses from 1st to 4th year of medical school must be completed.
  • Required educational courses including clinical training must be finished.

• Recently, controversy has arisen about exam eligibility. The main issues are as follows:

  • Some 4th-year students couldn't meet regular schedules due to medical school enrollment increases and resident strikes.
  • Students who couldn't meet graduation requirements due to insufficient clinical training emerged.
  • Whether to hold additional exams for these students has become a social controversy.
  • Debates about fairness and equity have intensified.
  • Both healthcare workforce supply disruptions and favoritism allegations are being raised simultaneously.

Main Issues of Additional Korean Medical License Exams

1. Fairness Problem: Raising fairness disputes with existing test takers
2. Precedent Concerns: Possibility of similar special treatment requests in future situations
3. Healthcare Workforce Supply: Need to resolve medical gaps through additional doctor production
4. System Consistency: Concerns about breaking the once-a-year principle
5. Social Trust: Impact on public trust in the fairness of national exams

3️⃣ Background of Current Controversy and Social Impact

✅ Background of Additional Exam Proposal

• Medical school enrollment increases and resident strikes are direct causes. The main background is as follows:

  • Starting in 2025, medical school quotas increased by 2,000 students, causing confusion in educational settings.
  • Mass resignations of residents disrupted clinical training at university hospitals.
  • 4th-year medical students faced shortages in required clinical training hours.
  • Students who couldn't meet graduation requirements faced the crisis of losing exam eligibility.
  • The medical community argues that separate measures are needed for these students.

• The medical community's position and demands are becoming concrete. The main arguments are as follows:

  • They emphasize that this is damage from structural problems, not students' personal responsibility.
  • They argue that additional exams are necessary to prevent healthcare workforce supply disruptions.
  • They demand active solution measures from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and Welfare.
  • They suggest that systematic supplementary measures should be discussed together, not one-time special treatment.
  • The Council of Medical School Deans decided to officially propose this to the government.

✅ Social Opposition and Concerns

• Citizens' opposition opinions are being strongly raised. The main opposition logic is as follows:

  • There are great concerns that the fairness and equity of national exams could be damaged.
  • Fairness issues with students who prepared for exams on regular schedules are being raised.
  • There are also fairness problems with other professional fields that followed regulations despite difficult situations.
  • It is pointed out that this could be seen as privileged consciousness and demands for special treatment.
  • Nearly 50,000 people expressed opposition opinions in a public petition.

• Concerns from an institutional perspective are also being raised. The main concerns are as follows:

  • There are worries that this could set a precedent for breaking the once-a-year principle.
  • There is potential for repeated special treatment requests in similar future situations.
  • It is pointed out that the authority and credibility of national exams could be damaged.
  • There are concerns that this could affect other medical profession national exams.
  • The consistency and predictability of exam operations could decline.

4️⃣ Related Term Explanations

🔎 Medical School Main Course

• The medical school main course is the core educational program of medical schools.
  • The medical school main course refers to the 4-year program of receiving specialized medical education at medical school. It is the program entered after completing 2 years of pre-medical courses, where students systematically learn basic medicine and clinical medicine from 1st to 4th year of the main course.
  • The main content of the medical school main course includes: First, in the 1st-2nd years of the main course, students intensively study basic medicine such as anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Second, in the 3rd-4th years of the main course, students learn clinical medicine such as internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics, and conduct clinical training with actual patients. Third, completing the 4th-year course is required to gain eligibility for the Korean Medical License Exam.
  • Recently, clinical training disruptions occurred in the 4th-year course due to resident strikes, causing controversy over meeting graduation requirements and exam eligibility. This is evaluated as a case that reveals structural problems in the medical education system.

🔎 Resident System

• The resident system is a key stage in training doctors.
  • A resident refers to a doctor who receives training to become a specialist in a specific medical field after graduating from medical school and obtaining a medical license. They go through 1 year as an intern and 3-4 years as a resident to obtain specialist qualifications in their field.
  • Characteristics of the resident system include: First, they receive training at university hospitals or general hospitals and participate in actual medical care. Second, they receive salary during training, but at a lower level than general doctors. Third, the training process is very difficult and requires long working hours. Fourth, they must pass specialist exams to work as independent specialists.
  • The mass resignation of residents in 2024 started as opposition to medical school enrollment increase policies, causing major disruptions to university hospital care and medical students' clinical training. This is the direct background of the current controversy over additional Korean Medical License Exams.

🔎 Healthcare Workforce Supply and Demand

• Healthcare workforce supply and demand is an important policy area directly connected to public health.
  • Healthcare workforce supply and demand refers to appropriately supplying the quantity and quality of healthcare workers that society needs. This includes all medical professions such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, and regional and specialty balance is also an important consideration.
  • Major issues in healthcare workforce supply and demand include: First, doctor shortage problems, especially serious shortages of doctors in rural areas or essential medical fields. Second, specialty imbalances where some fields like plastic surgery and dermatology are overcrowded while emergency medicine and obstetrics are avoided. Third, workforce expansion is needed to prepare for increased medical demand due to aging.
  • The government decided to increase medical school quotas by 2,000 starting in 2025 to solve these problems, but strong opposition from the medical community led to resident strike situations. The current controversy over additional Korean Medical License Exams can also be seen as one of the side effects of these healthcare workforce supply and demand policies.

5️⃣ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How difficult is the Korean Medical License Exam? What is the pass rate?

A: The Korean Medical License Exam shows quite high pass rates. In recent years, both practical and written exams have recorded pass rates of over 90%. This is quite high compared to other professional national exams, meaning most students who faithfully complete medical school education can pass. However, this doesn't mean the exam is easy. The 6-year medical school education process itself is very demanding and competitive, and students have already gone through considerable selection processes to reach the national exam. The practical exam evaluates practical skills by recreating actual patient care situations, while the written exam comprehensively evaluates vast medical knowledge. Therefore, systematic preparation and sufficient clinical experience must be supported to pass. If you fail, you can retake it the next year, but there's a 6-month time limit after graduation, so careful preparation is necessary.

Q: Would holding additional exams really solve the healthcare workforce shortage problem?

A: The effect of securing healthcare workforce through additional exams would be limited. First, the number of 4th-year students affected doesn't account for a large portion of overall doctor supply. Since only some 4th-year students from 40 medical schools nationwide are affected, additional doctor production of a few hundred people cannot fundamentally solve the overall healthcare workforce shortage problem. Also, even if they become doctors, they cannot immediately provide independent medical care but must go through intern and resident processes, so the actual healthcare workforce increase effect would only appear years later. More importantly, the fundamental cause of healthcare workforce shortage is regional and specialty imbalances rather than absolute doctor shortages. Problems like concentration in metropolitan areas and popular specialties, and avoidance of essential medical care cannot be solved simply by increasing workforce numbers. Therefore, rather than additional exams, more comprehensive policy approaches are needed, such as improving medical delivery systems, strengthening support for regional medical institutions, and making essential medical fees more realistic.