Seoul National University graduate Park Seol-hee (not her real name) was so nervous her hand quivered as she struggled to describe on Thursday her preparation for the second round of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ intensive new exam for selecting prospective diplomats.

Some 450 Koreans mostly in their late 20s took the two-day test over the weekend, less than half of the 900-odd hopefuls that took the first round in April.

Many of the hopefuls spend years preparing for South Korea’s Foreign Service exam and tests like it in Sillim-dong, a drab neighborhood of Seoul that clings along a thin brown stream incased in grey concrete walls.

“So many students here in Sillim-dong sacrifice their youth for success, and some do not even get success,” Park, 28, said.

The exam marked Park’s fifth attempt, five years of studying ― and hand wringing ― came down to a slew of short-answer exam questions on Friday and Saturday. Such academic devotion focused on a single exam is not at all unusual in a country obsessed with test taking.

Another hopeful future diplomat said she had tried four times, and yet another said he tried seven times. Park vowed this time would be her last regardless of the outcome.

Out of the 450 who took the second stage of the exam over the weekend, 60-70 will be selected to go on for personal interviews in November. Forty-five of those will then be eligible to attend the ministry’s newly formed Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

Based in Seocho district, southern Seoul, the new Diplomatic Academy was established to cultivate what the government insists will be better prepared and more highly trained Foreign Service professionals.

The old system consisted of a grueling one-off test and had been qualifying batches of three dozen or so new diplomats annually since 1968. The system produced notable Korean diplomats such as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Choi Sung-hong, foreign minister in 2002-2003 during the Kim Dae-jung administration.

Graduates from the new Diplomatic Academy are expected to have expertise in at least two languages and a specialty in a field such as international law, economics or security relations.

From Sillim-dong, the gray neighborhood where future diplomats prepare for a battery of tests and academic coursework, a measure of continuity can be detected between the new system and the old one: Both continue to demand years of toiling over any number of anticipated test questions.

For Park it is worth the sacrifice. After all, she explained, her mother always wanted a diplomat in the family.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)