You can find answers to common questions about the nature and format of YÖS here.
Foreign Student Test (YÖS) is a test that can be taken by foreign students willing to get education in Turkey, results of which can be used in university enrollment applications.
YÖS (Foreign Student Test) has been practiced since 1981. Before 2010, it was conducted by ÖSYM (Student Selection and Placement Center) in Turkey. From 2010 on, authority to organize and implement of Foreign Student Test has been transferred to individual universities.
Students who will apply to benefit from foreign student quota;
a) Provided that they are senior students in, or graduated from high school;
1) Students of foreign nationalities,
2) Persons who are Turkish students by birth, but got permission from Ministry of Interior Affairs to renounce Turkish nationality, as well as their underage children, whom have been registered on renouncement of nationality documents, and can certify documents to benefit from Utilization of Granted Rights in accordance with Turkish Citizenship Act, (Article 7 of Turkish Citizenship Act no 5901 include the statement “(1) Children born to Turkish Citizen mother or father under bond of marriage within or outside Turkey are Turkish citizens.”; candidates applying for acceptance from abroad are advised to study Turkish Citizenship Act.)
3) candidates who have started their secondary education in a foreign country from 01/02/2013 on will be eligible to apply for foreign student quota if they have completed their entire secondary (high school) education in any foreign country other than TRNC, (including those who have completed their secondary education in a MEB affiliated Turkish school operating in a foreign country),
4) Applications of persons of TRNC nationality, who reside in TRNC and have completed their secondary education in TRNC with GCE AL test results, as well as those who have enrolled in high schools in other countries between 2005-2010 and achieved, or will achieve GCE AL test results will be accepted.
YÖS (Foreign Student Test) is a test commenced by universities in Turkey. Since it is not a centralized test, reviewing applications and announcing results will be universities’ responsibility.
YÖS (Foreign Student Test) is commenced on a date determined by universities, at test locations determined by universities. Tests generally start from April on, and continue until June. You can track YÖS test and application dates from our website.
There is no age limit to apply for and enter YÖS, and/or enroll in universities.
As each university conducts YÖS separately, there is no limit regarding number of times to apply for or enter YÖS. Besides, having entered more than one YÖS test causes no change on a candidate’s score.
YÖS test is only valid for undergraduate or graduate education programs.
YÖS applications are completed online, through internet addresses provided by relevant universities. In order to be placed in a high-ranking university, in addition to prepare well for the test, you will need to complete your application appropriately, make the right preferences, and follow the process and procedures until the final stage. Application, transport to test location, and university preference proceedings for every student registered to our program will be completed by our counsellors. If you are not a student in Puza Academy but still want to avoid any potential problems in your application, we can follow up your applications on behalf of you. In this phase, we will learn about student’s goals, and help determine which YÖS(es) they should take. We request documents from the student, and create a username and password for the student to track the process via Puza Academy Application. After applications to determined tests are completed, we transfer you to test locations in our buses, accompanied by teachers and counsellors. After announcement of test results, preferences are completed by our consultancy service. Many universities accept extra placement applications to fill up vacancies after initial registration/enrollment deadlines are met. If a student could not be placed in initial placement, we will be meticulously tracking extra placement processes.
YÖS applications generally start in January. Application dates vary from one university to another. Some universities accept applications until May. You can track application and test dates for all universities from our website.
YÖS results are generally announced by universities within one month after commencement of the test.
Quotas for foreign students in all universities are announced from YÖK (Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu – Council of Higher Education) website at http://www.yok.gov.tr. Universities also announce their quotas in their own websites. Foreign student quotas may vary from year to year. After these announcements are made, you can also track foreign student quotas from our website as well.
YÖS consists of Basic Learning Skill Tests. Question distribution varies according to organizing universities’ preferences. Such question distributions generally consist of IQ, math, and geometry. After universities determine their test formats, this information will also be announced from our website.
If you will get your education in Turkish at the university you qualified for, you will need to certify that you possess a sufficient level of skill in Turkish. For this, you will need to take Turkish Level Test organized by relevant university. If you can get a sufficient score in this test, you can start your education from year one; otherwise you will need to take a year in Turkish Preparation Program. Universities may also accept any certification from TÖMER (Türkçe ve Yabancı Dil Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi – Turkish and Foreign Languages Research and Application Center), if you present any, and you can be exempted from Turkish tests. Thse conditions may vary from one university to another, so you are advised to study admittance conditions for the university you are applying to.
While Turkish tests are generally held after one is admitted to a university, some universities do run Turkish tests on the day they commence YÖS. Candidates who want to participate in Turkish test can get detailed information from application guides prepared by relevant universities.
Universities determine what kind of documents are needed for application process. These documents may vary from one university to another. You will need to follow announcements from websites of relevant universities. Our advice would be to get your diploma, transcripts, and passport translated and approved at public notary, and then submit these documents to Ministry of Education to acquire a certificate of equivalence. This way, you will have completed document preparations for both application and enrollment processes.
In Turkey, the authority to determine whether a document is an exact copy of the original is on public notaries, who are also signing authorities. A document will only be admitted as appropriate to the original if it bears a public notary approval. If you are outside of Turkey, Turkish Consulates or Embassies can also perform this proceeding.
While each university has their own application conditions, the priority and first condition is candidate’s test score. In order to be eligible to apply to a university, the candidate must have exceeded the limit score determined by relevant university. Another important condition in reviewing candidate applications is country quotas in practice at relevant university.
Country quota practice: In universities, number of candidates enrolling to the same faculty or college from the same country cannot exceed 20% of the total quota of programs in said faculty or college.
If this quota is not reached, said university can process applications regardless of this condition.
Apart from country quota, there are other conditions taken into consideration by universities; these conditions may vary from one university to another;
a. Preference order of the candidate
b. Age of candidate
c. High school GPA of the candidate, or point distribution per class
YÖS is a test that applies to foreign students willing to get education in Turkish universities. It is not possible to enroll into a university abroad with your YÖS score.
Apart from YÖS, certain internationally accepted test results or diploma points can make a student, who is willing to get an undergraduate or graduate degree from a Turkish university, eligible to apply to said university. You can examine types of tests accepted from each individual university’s website, or visit YÖK (Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu – Council of Higher Education) website to learn more about Foreign Student Admittance Criteria.