TR-YÖS

TR-YÖS is the exam most public universities in Türkiye use to admit international students to their undergraduate and associate degree programmes. It is run by ÖSYM, the national assessment centre, which took the exam over from individual universities. Much of what circulates online still describes the older university-run YÖS exams, whose length, sections and rules differed from one institution to the next.

The booklet is printed in Turkish, with a translation of every question in the language you choose when you register: English, German, French, Russian or Arabic. So a candidate who picks English sees the English and the Turkish side by side.

Structure

That is 75 seconds a question on average, but the tests do not have separate clocks. You can move between them freely, which makes the division of your time a decision you have to make yourself. ÖSYM does not publish how many questions come from each topic within a test, so any site quoting an exact breakdown is estimating.

Numerical Ability

Often called the IQ section. It tests reasoning with numbers, shapes and symbols: completing a sequence, finding the rule behind a figure pattern, working with an operation defined in the question itself. Little of it depends on formulas you have memorised, and most of it rewards speed at spotting a pattern.

Basic Mathematics

Secondary school mathematics: number properties, fractions and powers, equations and inequalities, functions, word problems on percentages, rates and ages, counting and probability, and geometry, including coordinate geometry. None of it is advanced, but all of it must be done by hand.

Scoring, and why it weighs mathematics more

Each test is marked separately. Your raw score is the number of correct answers minus a quarter of the number of wrong answers, and a blank earns nothing. ÖSYM then turns each raw score into a standard score, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10 across everyone who sat the exam.

The two standard scores are weighted 0.45 for Numerical Ability and 0.55 for Basic Mathematics, then rescaled to between 100 and 500.A candidate must earn at least 0.5 raw points in one of the two tests to receive a score at all.

Two consequences follow. Mathematics counts for more, so a strong mathematics test does more for your final score than an equally strong Numerical Ability test. And because the scale depends on how everyone performed, no one can tell you your 100–500 score before ÖSYM publishes it, whatever a score calculator claims.

When guessing pays

The quarter-mark penalty is set so that a blind guess is worth nothing. With five options, one guess in five is right and gains a mark, and the other four each lose a quarter. What changes the arithmetic is elimination.

So the rule is not to leave everything you are unsure of blank. It is to eliminate what you can, and answer whenever you have eliminated anything. The same arithmetic applies to CEnT-S, which uses the same penalty.

What you may bring

No calculator. ÖSYM prohibits calculators in all of its exams, and some preparation sites that say otherwise are wrong on this point. Phones, watches of any kind and all other electronic devices are also banned, as are rulers, compasses and your own pens.

ÖSYM puts two pencils, an eraser and a sharpener on each desk. There is no scratch paper either: working is done in the blank space of the question booklet itself, which is collected at the end. Bring your exam entry document and a valid photo ID, and water in a clear bottle if you want it. Nothing is held for you at the door, so anything else you bring means you cannot go in.

Which universities use it

TR-YÖS is one of several routes, not the only one. Public universities may admit international students on a TR-YÖS score, on secondary school grades, on the national exam of the applicant’s own country, or on international results such as the SAT, the Abitur or the IB. Each university’s senate decides which it accepts and sets the minimum scores. Foundation universities apply their own criteria and often run their own admission exam as well.

You apply directly to each university with your result, not through ÖSYM. Always check the admission notice for the specific programme, because the accepted exams and the minimum score differ between institutions and sometimes between programmes at the same one.

One exception matters. International students who studied at a secondary school in Türkiye cannot use TR-YÖS: they are placed through YKS, the national exam Turkish students take.

Dates, fee and where to sit it

The exam is held twice a year, in spring and in autumn, and a result is valid for two years from the exam date. You may apply in your final year of secondary school or after you have graduated.

It is sat in cities across Türkiye and in dozens of cities abroad, among them New Delhi, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Dhaka, Cairo, Baku, Tashkent and Almaty. The fee depends on the country of the exam centre rather than on your nationality: for the autumn 2026 sitting it ranged from 1,150 TL to 3,700 TL, paid by card in Turkish lira. Check the ÖSYM guide for the sitting you are applying to, since both fees and centres change.