Every exam year opens with the same rumour: "The system is changing this year." For those sitting YKS, Turkey's university entrance exam, in 2027, that rumour has an official answer, and the answer is clear. The structure and the procedure of the exam are not changing; what changes is the timing of questions based on the new curriculum, which come into play the following year. Below I separate what is certain from what is only expected and set out how to use the eight months that remain.
Is the YKS exam system changing in 2027?
No. According to a statement by Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, the system and the procedure of the exam stay as they are, and the structure built from three sessions is kept: TYT, the basic proficiency test, AYT, the field proficiency test, and YDT, the foreign language test. The minister said changes would be announced only through official channels and warned against trusting unverified reports. Headlines like "TYT is being scrapped" or "AYT is being merged" have no basis for this year.
Which curriculum will the questions follow?
The current programme, the one students now in twelfth grade are studying. The Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Modeli, the new national curriculum, is being taught in grades 9, 10 and 11 of high school in 2026-2027, while twelfth graders continue with the old programme. The statement from MEB, the Ministry of National Education, confirms this: there will be no change to the questions for the 2027 candidates, and questions based on the new curriculum will start in the following school year. In other words, the first twelfth graders taught under the new curriculum will sit the exam in 2028; this year's candidates can carry on with the resources they already have.
The same goes for candidates who have already graduated. Whichever programme the exam is built on, graduates are responsible for that programme too, and since in 2027 that is the current programme, the topic lists from previous years remain valid.
When will YKS 2027 be held?
There is no official date. ÖSYM, the national exam authority, has not yet published its 2027 exam calendar; the 2026 calendar was announced on 14 November last year, and the 2027 calendar is likewise expected in the final months of the year. In 2026, TYT was held on 20 June and AYT and YDT on 21 June. A weekend in the second half of June is a solid working assumption; once the exact date is announced, only the final weeks of the plan will need shifting.
How many questions are in TYT and AYT, and how long do they last?
Since the structure is unchanged, so are the numbers. TYT consists of 120 questions and lasts 165 minutes: 40 in Turkish, 20 in Social Sciences, 40 in Basic Mathematics and 20 in Science. AYT has 160 questions in 180 minutes; depending on their field, candidates answer the tests they need from Turkish Language and Literature-Social Sciences 1, Social Sciences 2, Mathematics and Science. YDT, taken by those who want a foreign language score, has 80 questions in 120 minutes. In every test, four wrong answers cancel out one correct one, and that rule stays as well.
These numbers should be the benchmark for your mock exam plan. How many minutes go into the 40 Turkish questions in a TYT mock, and how many mathematics questions are left blank for lack of time: those are the real data to track right up to exam day. Because the mocks on MEBİ, the ministry's free online study platform, use the real question counts and time limits, you can keep this tracking up regularly from November onwards.
How do the MEBİ YKS mock exams work?
The ministry's MEBİ platform is running twelve free YKS mock exams this year for twelfth graders and graduates. The first was held on 21–27 September and the second on 12–18 October; the next ones will each be open for a week in November, December, January, February, March and April, then come closer together in May and June, with the last one on 7–13 June 2027. Every mock covers the TYT, AYT and YDT sessions, and once a session ends, video solutions to the questions are added to the platform.
You take the mock at mebi.eba.gov.tr or through the mobile app. The monthly schedule gives a study programme a natural rhythm: the three weeks after each mock go to the topics that mock exposed, and in the fourth week the next mock arrives. What matters in this cycle is sitting the mock at its real time and within its real time limit; otherwise the result will mislead you.
How should the remaining eight months be divided?
From mid-October to mid-June there are roughly thirty-five weeks. The rough split that experienced teachers recommend goes like this: until New Year, the core TYT topics and whatever is still missing in AYT; from January to the end of April, a period in which finishing topics and solving questions run side by side; in May and June, revision built mainly around full mock exams. The most common mistake in this split is putting TYT off until April because it is "easy". Net scores in TYT Turkish and basic mathematics are the biggest single item deciding the ranking, and they are hard to recover once you fall behind.
For topic-based study, our TYT topic tests and AYT topic tests are short, come with worked solutions and can be done on a phone. The net score worked out at the end of each test shows you which topics you are ready to take into a mock exam.
Which headlines are misleading candidates this year?
Three in particular deserve a mention. The headline "questions will come from the new curriculum" is wrong; this year's questions come from the current programme. Headlines saying "the exam date has been set" cannot be true before ÖSYM publishes its calendar. Claims that "the score threshold has been lifted or changed" are meaningless until the official guide comes out; the guide is usually published during the application period, and the score calculation rules are written there.
Verified information has two sources: ÖSYM's announcements and the ministry's statements. Do not let any headline beyond those shape your study plan until you have seen where it comes from. The costliest loss in these eight months is a week spent preparing for a change that does not exist.