Parents of eighth graders ask two questions more than any other in October: on which day will LGS 2027, the high school entrance exam taken at the end of eighth grade, be held, and is my child ready for it? The first question has no official answer yet. For the second, there is a concrete measuring tool that MEB, the Ministry of National Education, is offering this year: ten free mock exams between November and June on MEBİ, the ministry's free online study platform. Let me walk through the mock exam calendar and how to make these mocks genuinely useful, step by step.
Has the LGS 2027 date been announced?
Not as of mid-October, when this article was written. The ministry announces the LGS date during the school year in most years, and the exam is held in June. The "6 June" or "12 June 2027" dates found online are estimates extrapolated from previous years, which is why one site gives a different date from another. The firm date will come with MEB's announcement; until then, treating the first half of June as the target is enough.
When are the MEBİ LGS mock exams?
The calendar consists of ten mock exams, and each one stays open for a week. The first runs on 2–8 November 2026, the second on 2–8 December 2026, the third on 2–8 January 2027, the fourth on 2–8 February 2027, the fifth on 2–8 March 2027 and the sixth on 2–8 April 2027. The frequency increases as the exam approaches: the seventh mock is on 19–25 April, the eighth on 2–8 May, the ninth on 24–30 May and the tenth on 2–8 June 2027.
Spreading each mock over a week reduces clashes with the school timetable. But a mock left to the last day of the week usually ends up rushed. Having the student pick a fixed day that suits their own routine, for example sitting every mock on Saturday morning at the real exam time, makes the results comparable with one another.
How do you take the mock exams?
During the mock exam week, you log in to mebi.eba.gov.tr or the MEBİ mobile app with the student account and select the open mock from the "Denemeler" (mock exams) section. The mocks are offered in two sessions, verbal and numerical, matching the real LGS format. Participation is free and can be done outside school, from home.
What really matters is sitting the sessions under real exam conditions. Phone off, desk clear, time kept. When the time limit is exceeded in a mock done at home, the result goes up but the information becomes false; in the exam hall in June the time will not be extended.
How many questions are in LGS, and how long does it take?
The exam has two sessions. The verbal session has 50 questions: 20 in Turkish, 10 in History of the Turkish Revolution and Atatürk's Principles, 10 in Religious Culture and Ethics, and 10 in a foreign language; the time is 75 minutes. In the numerical session there are 20 questions each in mathematics and science, 40 questions in total, solved in 80 minutes. Wrong answers cancel out right ones: three wrong answers erase one right answer. Since the MEBİ mocks are prepared in the same format, the student starts getting to know the time pressure of the real exam from November onwards.
Time is the most talked-about issue in the numerical session. Eighty minutes for 40 questions sounds generous, but most of the new-generation maths questions come with a page-long scenario text, and a single question can take five minutes. Noting at the end of each mock session how many questions were left blank for lack of time becomes the most concrete data in the study plan: if the number of blanks is not falling, the problem is not knowledge but reading and calculation speed.
How should you read a mock exam result?
After a mock ends, the platform gives a report by subject and by question; as more mocks are completed, a progress chart builds up in the progress reports. The most valuable part of the report is not the total score but the distribution of blanks and wrong answers by subject. If time runs out on the paragraph questions in Turkish, the problem is reading speed, not knowledge; if the first questions in maths are right and the last ones wrong, the problem is unfamiliarity with the new-generation question type. Saying "study harder" without making this distinction means wearing the child out in the wrong place.
The month after a mock should be devoted to the subject where the previous mock went wrong. That way the second mock, in December, shows whether the gaps from November have closed. The method in our article on analysing mock exams describes this cycle in detail.
Which curriculum will eighth graders be examined on this year?
The current one. In the 2026–2027 school year, the Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Modeli, the new national curriculum, is applied in grades 5, 6 and 7 at middle school; eighth graders continue with the old curriculum. So the LGS 2027 questions will also be prepared according to the programme currently being taught. The first eighth graders educated under the new programme will sit the exam the following year. The answer to the parents' question "should we buy the new curriculum books" is no for this year.
What should be studied until November?
Three weeks remain until the first mock, and that is time for reinforcing the current topics with questions, not for finishing the syllabus. The first semester topics of eighth grade, especially factors and multiples and exponents in maths, and seasons and DNA in science, make up most of the early questions in the exam. These topics can be practised in the new-generation question format in the eighth grade topic tests; each test takes ten minutes, so it fits in after school.
For those who want a broader plan for their study routine, our article on how to study in eighth grade offers a framework that can be applied throughout the year. The first mock in November will be the first real test of that framework; whatever the result, it is a starting point, not a report card.