Video summary

학교 선생님이 좋아하는 자기평가서는 따로 있다? | 세특 퀄리티 올리는 꿀팁💖

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / concepts

  • CSAT results show English difficulty is extremely high, impacting grade distribution in an absolute grading system.
  • Because English preparation differs between school grades vs. CSAT, students should prepare on two tracks continuously (not just rely on what’s covered in mock exams).
  • Winter break is treated as a critical final preparation window for CSAT and mock exams—especially for students who won’t have much summer time later.
  • For high school seniors (or students preparing their year-end self-evaluation / student record “세특” reports), writing well now can:
    • Recover/justify past activities that may have been weak or “failed”
    • Prevent the entire year’s record from being written incorrectly
  • A good self-evaluation is not only about listing activities; it should be written in a way that is easy for teachers to read and assess.

Methodology & detailed instructions for writing self-evaluations (“세특/자기평가서”)

1) Start by listing everything you did (broadly)

On a blank page, organize activities in this order:

  • Autonomous activities
  • Club activities
  • Career-related activities (career activities)

For each activity, first write what you did over the past year in broad terms. It’s okay if you’re not meticulous—the goal is to organize major activity titles and key outlines.

2) In each activity section, prioritize “career path” alignment

  • Unconditionally circle activities that match your career path.
  • Use those as top priority in the self-evaluation (“set”).
  • Even if an activity isn’t directly career-matching, you can still include it if:
    • You worked hard on it
    • You think it turned out particularly well

Address a common worry:

  • If you can’t include everything due to character limits, don’t overly compress fine detail.
  • It’s better to include fewer activities with clearer summaries than many with vague details.

3) Choose an appropriate number/length of activities (space management)

Suggested maximum:

  • Up to ~3 activities, but often 2 is most appropriate

Typical length guidance:

  • Around 500 characters is considered an appropriate target for career-related sections
  • If there’s capacity (e.g., higher limits like ~700 for career parts), 2–3 can be okay
  • If your activity process is difficult, sometimes:
    • 1 activity can work

Core principle: character limits make it impossible to write overly detailed descriptions for everything—so select strategically.

4) For extracurricular/autonomous parts, don’t only “career”—show diligence

If you run out of space for career-aligned content:

  • You may fill the remainder with school-related diligence

Preferred emphasis:

  • Show how actively, self-directedly you participated
  • Highlight curriculum-linked or school-program-linked participation first

5) Use a strong 3-part structure for each inquiry/activity write-up

For each activity, include:

  1. Why you started the activity (motivation / trigger)

    • Explain the reason/curiosity behind starting
    • Avoid wording like “I did it because the teacher told me”
    • Include:
      • What triggered your questions/doubts
      • How you planned to solve the problem

  2. Summarize what you did (inquiry details)

    • After writing the trigger, briefly summarize the investigation/process

  3. Final wrap-up: what you learned/gained/realized (and growth)

    • Write briefly:
      • What you learned
      • What you gained
      • What you realized
      • Specifically, how you grew through the process

6) Raise sophistication with “fine-line” techniques (teacher-perceived quality)

Include elements that show depth rather than just completion.

Technique A: Show failure and how you recovered

Describe moments where you:

  • Felt perplexed/embarrassed
  • Failed during an experiment/inquiry

Then show resolution:

  • Kept observing until you found the cause, or
  • Repeated and overcame the failure

Technique B: Show curiosity that leads to action (not just reading)

If questions arise:

  • Don’t let them go
  • Look up relevant papers/articles/books
  • If needed, directly contact experts

Example method mentioned:

  • Find the professor’s email via the university website
  • Write and send a respectful question

Emphasize the “dynamic side”:

  • Not just asking once, but continuing to ask until you understand

Technique C: If experiments are fewer, use “report-as-research” + proposals

For liberal arts tracks where experiments are fewer, you can:

  • Investigate literature/articles/books
  • Produce outputs like PPTs or card news

Then go further by proposing improvements, e.g.:

  • If you read a policy or guideline and think “I would do it differently,”
  • Draft a policy restriction / proposal document
  • Submit it to the school leadership or relevant authorities

Examples included:

  • Rewriting school shuttle bus policy and submitting it to leadership by arguing it as a genuine autonomous community issue.
  • Noticing environmental issues (stream/water/air) in the neighborhood and submitting a petition or proposal for resolution.

Core principle: real proactiveness means going beyond writing documents:

  • Get involved actively
  • Understand the real problem deeply
  • Take steps to propose or implement solutions

7) For second-year students: connect across grade levels

  • Review first-year self-evaluation/set materials and identify links to second-year topics.
  • Examples:
    • If you did an experiment in year 1, connect it to year 2 disciplines (e.g., chemistry/physics).
    • If you explored something in English in year 1, it’s okay to explore a related angle in another subject in year 2.
  • If you had disappointments or unresolved parts in year 1:
    • It’s beneficial to resolve them in year 2
    • This creates in-depth grade-to-grade continuation

8) For long-term projects: include them prominently

If you worked on a long-term project for ~6 months to 1 year, include it.

Why:

  • Long-term research/experiments demonstrate the ability to handle assignments over time

Tip:

  • “Melt down” (expand) the long-term work in more detail for the self-evaluation.
  • Professors are said to favor long-term projects.

9) Final reminder / execution checklist

This is treated as the final time to finalize year-end self-evaluation sets. Do this carefully:

  • Go through everything meticulously, one by one
  • Ask: “What have I done over the past year?”
  • Organize career-aligned items well when possible

If something is confusing while preparing:

  • Leave a comment for help (as stated in the video)

Video call-to-action (not instruction, but mentioned):

  • Like/subscribe if helpful

Speakers / sources featured

  • Teacher Sella (the presenter/teacher)
  • CSAT / “수능” (Korean College Scholastic Ability Test) results and grading system (referenced as a source of data)
  • Professors/university websites (referenced for methods of finding contact emails; no specific names given)

Original video