This study aims to examine whether there are linguistic differences in College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) English using corpus linguistic programs such as Readability Formulas and Lexical Complexity Analyzer (LCA) on the basis of the criterion-referenced assessment introduced in the 2018 academic year. The study compares CSAT English reading from 2015 to 2017 academic year (norm-referenced assessment) and 2018 to 2020 academic year (criterion-referenced assessment). There are no significant differences on any of the measures. As level of difficulty in CSAT English is to be maintained, we see that the exam purpose has been achieved. However, the results of evaluation with the Readability Formulas web-site indicate that the level of CSAT reading texts is too high for twelfth grade students in Korea. Previous studies have found that the policy of linking EBS and CSAT has produced difficult reading passages in CSAT English. In accord with the aim of the national curriculum to enhance students’ communicative skills, decreasing the difficulty level of reading texts and removing some word families or vocabulary at too high a level may cause teachers and students to focus more on speaking and writing; and speaking and writing skills need to be directly assessed.