Students perform poorly in Turkey’s university entrance exam maths, science sections

Duvar English

Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) on July 16 released the Higher Education Entrance Exams (YSK) scores that students will use in choosing universities in 2024.

ÖSYM President Bayram Ali Ersoy held a press conference and announced the performance statistics of 2.8 million students in the first step exam Basic Proficiency Test (TYT) and 1.78 million students in the second step exam Field Proficiency Test (AYT).

The university entrance exam in Turkey is organized in two rounds, with all students taking a simple Turkish, math, science and social sciences test in the first step, and a second step with more sophisticated questions about their fields.

In the first step, the 40-question Turkish test had an average of 21.427 correct answers, while the basic math test averaged 7.955. The 20-question science test had an average score of 3.478, and the social sciences test reached an average of 9 correct answers.

Compared the last year, the Turkish and social sciences average scores increased slightly whereas math and science scores decreased. 

In the second step, the 40-question math test had an average score of 5.547. For the 40-question science test, the averages were 2.247 in the 14-question physics subtest, 1.457 in the 13-question chemistry subtest, and 2.324 in the 13-question biology subtest.

Compared the last years’ test, all averages except biology decreased. 

In the social sciences-1 test, the averages were 5.935 for the Turkish language and literature subtest (24 questions), 2.484 for the history-1 subtest (10 questions), and 2.103 for the geography-1 subtest (6 questions).

For the social sciences-2 test, averages were 2.076 for history-2 (11 questions), 2.416 for geography-2 (11 questions), 1.964 for the philosophy group (12 questions), and 1.275 for the religion/additional philosophy group (6 questions).

Compared the last years’ test, nearly all sections in social sciences tests saw increased averages.

The 80-question Foreign Language Test (YDT), aimed at prospective language department applicants, showed average scores of 39.393 in the German test, 27.939 in Arabic, 46.334 in French, 35.638 in English, and 52.332 in Russian. 

Averages rose in German, French, and Russian, but declined in Arabic and English.

Top-scorers from around country

All top scorers in their field got all the questions right and received 500 full points.

Süleyman Mete Genç from Mersin province's Private Elit College Science High School topped the Basic Proficiency Test (TYT).

The top scorers in the Field Proficiency Tests (AYT) were Berra Kuruş from Galatasaray High School in Istanbul for the Turkish-math field, Arda Taşdemir from Cemil Meriç Science High School in Elazığ province for the math-science field, and Fatih Emre Düzcan from private Bahçeşehir College Anatolian High School in Rize province for the social sciences field.

The top scorers in the Foreign Language Test (YDT) were Sevgi Kırmızıbekmez from Kabataş Boys' High School in Istanbul for German, Yusuf Salih Orhan from Kartal Anatolian Imam Hatip High School in Istanbul for Arabic, Yunus Emre Aydoğan from Çapa Science High School in Istanbul for French, Mehmet Alp Güneş from Istanbul Atatürk Science High School for English, and Safiye Yaşar from Ayrancı Anatolian High School in Ankara for Russian.

Starting from 2022, the practice of threshold scores has been abolished. In other words, students do not need to pass a certain threshold score in order to be admitted from a university.