Thanaweya Amma Explained: Egypt's Secondary School Certificate Exam
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Africa Admissions & Exams
Thanaweya Amma is Egypt's general secondary certificate exam, and your total percentage score across all subjects decides which public university faculty you can join through the Tansiq placement system.
🎓 Taken at the end of grade 12, split into scientific and literary streams
Arabic carries the heaviest weight of any single subject
You need at least 70% in some non-core subjects just to pass them
📩 Your total percentage feeds directly into the Tansiq coordination system for university placement
What Thanaweya Amma is
Thanaweya Amma is the General Secondary Education Certificate exam that Egyptian students sit at the end of grade 12 in public and many private schools. Egypt's Ministry of Education sets and administers the exam, and hundreds of thousands of students sit it each year; more than 921,000 students began the exams in one recent cycle, according to EgyptToday .
Students choose between two main tracks in their final years of secondary school: the scientific track, which itself splits into a science section and a mathematics section, and the literary track. The track you choose shapes which university faculties you can realistically target, since faculties like Medicine and Engineering only admit from the scientific track.
How the exam is scored
Thanaweya Amma scores are expressed as a percentage of total marks across every subject you sit, not a pass or fail per subject alone. Arabic is the single most heavily weighted subject, worth around 80 marks, close to a quarter of your total score, reflecting its central place in the certificate. Alongside your core subjects, you must also pass a set of non-core subjects, such as religious education and national education, and these require at least 70% to count as a pass rather than contributing to your overall ranking score.
Why your score matters beyond passing
Passing Thanaweya Amma qualifies you for a secondary certificate, but your exact percentage is what determines your future. Egypt's public university system does not use separate entrance exams or personal statements for most faculties. Instead, the Ministry of Higher Education's Coordination Office, known as Tansiq, ranks every graduate nationally by their total percentage and places them into faculties based on the preferences they submit and the minimum cutoff each faculty sets that year. A single percentage point can be the difference between qualifying for a faculty like Pharmacy and being placed somewhere further down your preference list.
Results and pass rates
The Ministry of Education announces national results and the overall pass rate each year. Egypt approved its 2026 Thanaweya Amma results with a pass rate of about 75%, according to Ahram Online . Results release triggers the Tansiq window, so students and families track the announcement closely to prepare their faculty preference lists in the days that follow.