After this expression had been criticized for its probable Japanese origin, the educational world has been making steady efforts to replace this counter with the native Korean word 제곱(jegop). Despite its gradual disappearance from public education materials like textbooks, most people still understand it well and use it in mathematical contexts.
In some people, chiefly among the young, there is a tendency to prefer '제곱(jegop)' to 승 in case of describing low exponents of a number. When the high or noninteger number comes as exponent, people use 승 more than 제곱(jegop).
But it will be no problem with handling these two expressions since most people understands both of them well.
