The long-discussed change to Turkey’s university entrance exams — historically known as YGS (Transition to Higher Education Examination) and LYS (Undergraduate Placement Examination) — has been officially introduced by YÖK President Yekta Saraç. The new system, announced recently, will be implemented for the first time in the 2018–2019 academic year and is named the Higher Education Institutions Examination (Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı). President Saraç described the aims and structure of the new exam, explaining that it is intended to reduce student stress, limit the extreme pressure of the previous two-stage system, and better evaluate candidates’ reasoning, logical thinking, verbal and quantitative skills, comprehension, and command of Turkish.
Structure: Sessions and Number of Questions
The Higher Education Institutions Examination will be administered in two sessions on the same day in June. The first session will take place on a Saturday morning; students who feel their performance in the first session is sufficient may return after the midday break to sit the second session on the same day. The foreign language test is planned to be held on the following day, Sunday.
Under the former system students faced a total of 160 multiple-choice questions across Mathematics, Turkish, Science, and Social Sciences. In the new format, the first session contains only 80 questions. The second session comprises separate tests in Mathematics, Turkish, Science, and Social Sciences, with 40 questions in each test. Candidates taking the foreign language exam will face 80 questions. In effect, the first session replaces the previous YGS stage, and the second session corresponds to the previous LYS stage, while maintaining a single-day approach for the main two sessions.
Scoring Types and Thresholds
The new exam system introduces two threshold scores that determine the types of programs candidates may select. These cutoffs are set at 150 and 180 points. Students who score 150 or above in the first session will be eligible to apply to associate degree (short-cycle) programs. Those who wish to apply to undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree programs must exceed the 180-point threshold. Candidates scoring below 150 will not earn the right to make program preferences.
Another notable change: candidates who score 200 or more in the first session and who choose not to make preferences that year are allowed to preserve that score for use in the following year. Under the previous YGS/LYS system, YÖK used an 18-score-type model to calculate candidate placement, a system developed to reflect the differences among various undergraduate departments. With the reform, that wide range of score types has been condensed: the 18-category model has been reduced to five score types to simplify evaluation and better align results with program requirements.
Practical Considerations and Concerns
A practical concern voiced by students relates to the decision point between sessions. Because the first and second sessions are held on the same day, candidates must judge during the midday break whether their performance in the morning session was sufficient to exceed the 180-point threshold needed for bachelor’s program eligibility. If they believe they have passed the threshold, they will continue to the second session that afternoon. This adds a new dynamic to test-day decision-making: students will make an in-the-moment assessment of their likely results and choose whether to take the second session accordingly.
Overall, YÖK frames the new Higher Education Institutions Examination as an effort to ease the cumulative burden of the previous two-stage format, reduce stress, and place greater emphasis on reasoning, comprehension, and language use. The redesigned structure, modified question counts, redefined score types, and clearer threshold rules aim to create a more focused, efficient placement process for prospective university students while addressing longstanding complaints about the prior system’s intensity and complexity.