Korean education has fallen down the slippery slope of "perfection". Mainly due to there being not enough jobs at the end of the tunnel as they do not count "real jobs" as labour or creative roles, which make up huge percentages of a happy society's workforce.

Stress isn't the enemy, it's the balance of priorities and what is better for society. Just on the virtue of you being stressed is not an argument for or against this.

No, the argument against it is the suicide rate and the lack of sex and dating and the fact that, all things considered, judging people on one gargantuan, life-determining test has no intrinsic value compared to the myriad other ways to assess knowledge and skills.

Most countries in South, South East Asia have made exams as a make and break deal for every student. In India, there are so many kids staying away from home in cities which are just exam preparation centres, with routine news of suicides.

Looking back on my life I think we asians have definitely stretched this way too far. Unfortunately, in high & young population countries like ours these exams are perceived as the only non corrupt way of moving out of low income trap. So this will go on :-(