On this day every year, life in South Korea comes to a halt.

The country's high school students are taking their college entrance exam, which means the stock market and offices open later to ensure students don't get stuck in traffic, planes are grounded for about 40 minutes, the military stop conducting drills. This year, the central bank also delayed its interest rate decision for an hour.



It's all a reflection of South Korea's extreme focus on academic excellence; its private tutoring industry is worth about $20 billion a year.

The journey to scholastic excellence starts young. More than 80 percent of elementary students received private tutoring in 2014, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service. This proportion falls to 69 percent by middle school and 50 percent for high school students.

"Parents may invest early in tutoring to get a head start, especially in stratified school systems," said Professor Mark Bray, a research authority on private tutoring at the University of Hong Kong.

In South Korea, the annual college entry exam is a pathway to obtaining a spot at a prestigious university and landing a job at a top-ranked corporation, or a chaebol such as Samsung and Hyundai.

In fact, if a student is late for the South Korean college entry exam, they can dial the police who will escort them to the testing site.

Although South Korea is unique in suspending daily activities for the life-changing exam, the rest of Asia is not short of late-night cram schools or millionaire tutors who are part of a massive industry in private tutoring.

In Asia, education and exams are treated with great gravity because they are seen as a key determiner of future success. This belief is particularly in East Asian societies such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

"These countries share a Confucian heritage with a belief in effort and the rewards from education," Bray said.