Autumn is a busy season for academic exams. The second sitting of YDS, the Foreign Language Proficiency Exam, takes place on Sunday, 22 November 2026, and the third sitting of ALES, the Academic Personnel and Graduate Education Entrance Exam, one week later, on Sunday, 29 November 2026. Candidates who need both scores for a master's or doctoral application have to take the two exams in the same month. Six weeks remain; divided well, that is enough.
When will the YDS and ALES results be announced?
According to the calendar of ÖSYM, the national exam authority, the results of the 22 November YDS will be announced on 10 December 2026 and those of the 29 November ALES/3 on 17 December 2026. Because universities mostly accept spring semester graduate applications between late December and January, these dates arrive in time for applications. Even so, it is worth checking the announcement date of the institute you are targeting now; some programmes close applications before the results come out, and in that case you have to apply with an existing older score.
Can you still apply for ALES/3?
The regular application period was 7–15 October 2026. For those who missed it, the late application day is 21 October 2026; the fee is higher for late applications, but the right to sit the exam is preserved. Submitting the application through ÖSYM's candidate portal, the Aday İşlemleri Sistemi, without paying the fee does not count as completing it, and this detail catches out a few candidates every sitting. The YDS application period closed in mid-October; candidates who missed it still have the e-YDS sittings during the year, the computer-based version of the exam, but it is worth knowing that e-YDS is held in only certain languages and with limited capacity.
How do you study for two exams at once?
The two exams measure completely different things, so studying for both on the same day is tiring but they do not get in each other's way. YDS is built on reading comprehension, vocabulary and grammar; ALES on numerical and verbal reasoning. The routine that works for experienced candidates is to split the day in two: language in the morning, reasoning in the evening. When the mind tires of language work, switching to a numerical question has the effect of a rest.
A sensible way to divide the six weeks looks like this. The first two weeks lean towards YDS, because vocabulary and reading speed are the slowest skills to develop. In the third and fourth weeks the weight shifts to ALES; calculation speed on numerical questions can recover in a short time. In the final two weeks, full-length mock exams for both: first YDS, then ALES, in the same order as the real exam days.
Where do the points come from in YDS?
YDS consists of 80 questions and lasts 180 minutes. Most of the questions come from reading passages, sentence completion, paragraph completion and translation; the share of pure grammar questions is smaller than people assume. The skill that really determines the score is reading long academic text quickly and matching it to the question. Over six weeks, reading two academic paragraphs a day and pulling ten words out of each gives more lasting results than memorising word lists, because the word is learned together with its context.
A small tactic for exam day: warm up with the short questions before starting on the paragraph questions, then move on to the long texts. Rehearse this order in your mock exams too; applying an untested strategy on exam day turns into lost time. For topic-based preparation the YDS tests are useful, and the English level test helps you gauge where you stand.
In ALES, does numerical or verbal come first?
It depends on the score type of your target programme. In ALES, the numerical and verbal sections have 50 questions each, and the 100 questions in total are solved in 150 minutes. Because the score types weight the sections differently, a candidate applying to the natural sciences should load up on the numerical section and one applying to the social sciences on the verbal; those applying with the equal weight score should keep the two in balance. Which score type is required is written in the institute's announcement; making a study plan without reading that line can end in effort spent on the wrong section.
In the numerical section, most questions rest on reading comprehension and building a line of reasoning rather than on calculation skill. So getting to know the question types is more productive than studying high school maths from scratch. The ALES topic tests offer a short, measurable way to get used to these types; noting the reason for each wrong answer in a single sentence after every test makes falling into the same trap a second time less likely.
How is the score calculated, and do wrong answers cancel out right ones?
In neither exam do wrong answers cancel out right ones; leaving a question blank has no advantage at all. In YDS the score is directly proportional to the number of correct answers: with 80 questions, each correct answer brings 1.25 points, and 60 correct answers equal 75 points. Since many master's programmes ask for threshold scores such as 55 or 65, the target can be tracked by converting it into a number of correct answers; 65 points require 52 correct answers.
In ALES the calculation is more indirect. The numbers of correct answers in the numerical and verbal sections are converted separately into standard scores, then weighted according to the score type; the result is announced as a value out of 100. Because the standard score depends on the overall average of the exam, the same number of correct answers can produce different scores in different sittings. That is why, in ALES mocks, "what is my net in each section" matters as much as "what is my net overall"; the net in the section weighted by your score type moves the score more.
How many years are the scores valid?
Both the YDS and the ALES score are valid for five years from the exam date. That means a score obtained in November can be used in graduate applications and academic staff announcements until the autumn of 2031. Those who find their score insufficient can sit again in the spring sittings; the higher of the two scores counts, and a lower score does not wipe out the older one.
One last note: there is only a week between the two exams. Resting for a day and moving on to ALES mocks, instead of debating the outcome the moment you walk out of YDS, is the simplest way to make that week count.