YKS explained: what the exam is, and who actually has to sit it
YKS is Türkiye's single national university entrance examination. Its full name is Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı — "Higher Education Institutions Examination" — and ÖSYM runs it over one weekend in three sessions. The question people actually search is not what it stands for but whether it applies to them, and the answer turns on where you went to high school, not which passport you hold.
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YKS in one minute
Two bodies are involved and they are routinely confused. YÖK, the Council of Higher Education, decides the exam's principles and rules. ÖSYM, the Measuring, Selection and Placement Centre, conducts the exam and runs the placement. News about a rule change comes from YÖK; dates, fees and results come from ÖSYM.
Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı
Abbreviated YKS. YÖK's own English name for it is the Higher Education Institutions Examination.
One weekend, three sessions
One session on Saturday, two on Sunday. It is held once a year, with no resit and no make-up session — missing it costs a full year.
2.25 million candidates in 2026
ÖSYM's valid-candidate figures: 2,254,830 took TYT and 1,473,064 took AYT. It is the largest examination held in Türkiye.
Turkish only
The TYT and AYT booklets are wholly in Turkish, with no translation. Only YDT — the foreign-language test — exists in five languages, and that is a test of a language, not a translation of the exam.
Sources: YÖK — entry to higher education · 2026-YKS application guide (6 Feb 2026) · 2026-YKS statistics (21 Jul 2026)
Who must sit it — school, not passport
This is the section most agency websites get wrong. The 2026 guide is explicit: the people listed below may enter higher education in Türkiye and in the TRNC "only through YKS", and are placed through it.
| Situation | Route | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Turkish citizen, high school in Türkiye or the TRNC | YKS only | An international-student application is not accepted at all |
| Foreign national who studied at or graduated from a high school in Türkiye | YKS only | Your passport does not open the international route — except in three cases, below |
| Foreign national who completed high school entirely abroad | TR-YÖS or direct application | No YKS obligation; may sit it voluntarily if an institution will use the score |
| Turkish citizen who completed high school entirely abroad (TRNC excluded) | TR-YÖS — or YKS by choice | To use a YKS score they must apply for and sit the exam |
| Dual national, Turkish by birth | YKS | Art. 7 of Citizenship Law 5901 excludes them from the YÖS route |
| Foreign national who later acquired Turkish citizenship | TR-YÖS permitted | Provided they did not study at or graduate from a high school in Türkiye or the TRNC |
| Blue Card (mavi kart) holder | YKS permitted | TR-YÖS also open, on the same schooling condition |
| TRNC nationals · Turkish-origin migrants from Bulgaria | YKS | Both named expressly in the guide |
Sources: 2026-YKS application guide · 2026-YKS FAQ, Q77 (19 Feb 2026) · YÖK — 2026 principles for admitting students from abroad (31 Jul 2026)
The three sessions: TYT, AYT, YDT
TYT is compulsory for every candidate. AYT and YDT are taken only by those who want a score that qualifies them for a bachelor's programme.
| Session | Test | Questions | Duration | Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | TYT — Basic Proficiency Test | 120 | 165 min | Sat 20 June 2026, 10:15 |
| 2nd | AYT — Field Proficiency Tests | 160 | 180 min | Sun 21 June 2026, 10:15 |
| 3rd | YDT — Foreign Language Test | 80 | 120 min | Sun 21 June 2026, 15:45 |
TYT breaks down as Turkish 40 · social sciences 20 · basic mathematics 40 · science 20. AYT as Turkish language and literature with social sciences-1 forty · social sciences-2 forty · mathematics forty · science forty (physics 14, chemistry 13, biology 13). YDT is offered in German, Arabic, French, English and Russian; you pick one at application.
Scoring, and the wrong-answer penalty
The practical consequence: blind guessing loses you marks. If you can eliminate two options the guess is mathematically in your favour; if you can eliminate none, leave it blank.
There are five score types: TYT alone for two-year programmes, and for bachelor's degrees SAY (quantitative), SÖZ (verbal), EA (equal weight) and DİL (language). TYT contributes 40% to each of the four; the remainder comes from the relevant AYT tests, or from YDT for DİL.
Source: 2026-YKS FAQ, Q47. The 40% is stated there; the per-test weighting of the remaining 60% sits in a guide table we could not read machine-side, so we publish no figures for it.
Is there a minimum score?
Asked directly whether a minimum score is required, ÖSYM answers in one word: "Hayır" — no. Having a calculated TYT score is enough.
150 and 180 are no longer thresholds
There used to be two: 150 for TYT and 180 for the four score types. Both were abolished from the 2022 cycle by a YÖK decision. Anyone quoting them today is quoting a dead rule.
Half a raw point
For a score to be calculated at all you need at least 0.5 raw points in either basic mathematics or Turkish; for SAY/SÖZ/EA, in one of the two relevant AYT tests; for DİL, in YDT.
Success ranking for certain programmes
The başarı sıralaması requirement remains in force for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law, architecture, engineering and teacher training. The bar there is a ranking, not a score.
165 minutes, not 135
The same 2022 decision added thirty minutes to TYT. That is why older timetables circulating online give the wrong duration.
Sources: 2026-YKS FAQ, Q41/Q45/Q53/Q64 · YÖK decisions on YKS (11 Feb 2022)
OBP — your high-school grade counts
Candidates are not placed on the exam score alone. The secondary-school achievement score (OBP) is added like this: diploma grade out of 100 × 5; any grade below 50 is treated as 50, so OBP runs from 250 to 500; the result is multiplied by 0.12 and added to the exam score. The maximum contribution is therefore 60 points — that multiplication is ours, not a published figure. OBP is also the tie-breaker when two placement scores are equal.
Candidates with a foreign diploma bring a Diploma Denklik Belgesi (Ministry of Education equivalency certificate) showing the diploma grade to an application centre. There is no separate formula for them: the recognised grade feeds the same mechanism.
The 2026 cycle: dates and fees
Applications ran 6 February – 2 March 2026, with payment due by 3 March and late applications 10–12 March at a 50% surcharge. The exam was held on 20 and 21 June; results came out on 21 July at 06:00; preferences ran 29 July – 10 August, and supplementary placement 17–21 September.
The published fee was 700.00 TL per session. So TYT alone cost 700 TL, TYT + AYT 1,400 TL and all three 2,100 TL — those totals are our arithmetic; the guide prints only the per-session figure. Relatives of şehit and gazi pay neither the exam fee nor the application-service fee.
Sources: 2026-YKS application guide · ÖSYM exam calendar
YKS or TR-YÖS?
These are not two options open to the same person. They are two doors, and your door is set by where you went to school.
| YKS | TR-YÖS | |
|---|---|---|
| For whom | High school in Türkiye or the TRNC — any nationality | High school completed entirely abroad |
| Sittings per year | One | Two — in 2026, 12 April and 11 October |
| Languages | Turkish only | Six: Turkish, German, English, French, Russian and Arabic |
| Where | Inside Türkiye. The only centre outside it named in the 2026 guide is Lefkoşa (TRNC), open to specified categories only | Dozens of centres worldwide — Baghdad, Erbil, Kirkuk, Riyadh, Jeddah, Cairo, Khartoum, Algiers, Rabat, Tunis, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and more |
| Duration | Three sessions, 465 minutes in total | 100 minutes, one session |
| Fee | 700 TL per session (2026 cycle) | By country group: 3,700 / 1,650 / 1,150 TL (2026/2 cycle) |
State universities no longer run their own international entrance exams; they accept TR-YÖS or qualifications such as the IB, the Abitur or GCE A-levels. Foundation (private) universities may use it too.
Questions we are asked
- My child is a foreign national but went to high school in Istanbul. Can they apply as an international student?
- No. Their route is YKS, unless the school was attached to a foreign embassy or was a MOBİS-registered private international school. This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding we see — it costs a year when it surfaces late.
- What does YKS stand for?
- Yükseköğretim Kurumları Sınavı — Higher Education Institutions Examination. It is Türkiye's one national university entrance exam, run by ÖSYM in three sessions over a single weekend.
- Can I sit YKS outside Türkiye?
- You apply online from anywhere, but you sit the exam in Türkiye. The only centre outside the country named in the 2026 guide is Lefkoşa in the TRNC, and it is restricted to candidates with a TRNC connection.
- Is YKS available in English?
- No. TYT and AYT are entirely in Turkish. English appears only as one of the five YDT languages — a test of English, not an English version of the exam. If you need an exam in English, the route is TR-YÖS.
- Is there still a minimum score?
- No — thresholds were abolished from the 2022 cycle. You need only a calculable score (0.5 raw points in a relevant test). The success-ranking requirement, however, still applies to medicine, law, engineering and similar programmes.
- Can an agency guarantee a place through YKS?
- No, and nobody can. The exam and the placement are both ÖSYM's. Anyone promising you a guaranteed state-university seat is selling you a fiction. What we do is read a student's situation, identify the correct door — YKS or TR-YÖS — prepare the equivalency file, and accompany the application.
Where to go next
Studying in Türkiye
Routes, scholarships, diploma equivalency and the first questions for anyone starting from zero.
Residence permits
What follows an acceptance letter: the student residence permit, its deadlines and its conditions.