The YOS Exam: How ASEAN Students Apply to Turkish Universities

What YOS is and why it exists

YOS stands for Yabanci Uyruklu Ogrenci Sinavi, the Foreign Student Examination. Turkish public universities use it to assess international applicants for undergraduate programs, since these applicants come from education systems with different curricula, grading scales and secondary school qualifications. Rather than trying to compare a Malaysian SPM transcript, a Vietnamese THPT certificate and a Philippine senior high school diploma on equal footing, YOS gives universities a single standardized score to work with.

YOS sits outside the Turkiye Burslari government scholarship system. Turkiye Burslari applicants go through YTB's own selection process and do not need a YOS score. YOS matters for students applying directly to a Turkish public university for a self-funded or partially funded undergraduate place, without going through the national scholarship.

Exam format

The exam consists of 80 multiple-choice questions to complete in 90 minutes. Content focuses on mathematics, geometry and logical or IQ-style reasoning rather than subject knowledge in fields like biology or history, which makes it accessible to applicants from a wide range of secondary curricula. Because it tests reasoning ability more than memorized content, many applicants prepare using practice question banks specific to the YOS format rather than their regular school coursework.

The exam is available in several languages depending on the exam center, including Turkish, English, German, French, Arabic and Russian. Applicants from ASEAN countries typically sit the English-language version unless they specifically want the Turkish version, which can be relevant if the target program is Turkish-medium.

Centrally administered versus university-run YOS

As of the 2024/2025 admissions cycle, Turkish state universities no longer run separate university-specific YOS exams. Nearly all now require TR-YOS, a single centrally administered exam run by OSYM and held at roughly 88 centers across about 60 countries. Some universities also accept SAT scores, or IB, Abitur or GCE A-Level results, as an alternative to TR-YOS depending on the program.

Some private, or foundation, universities may still set their own separate entrance tests rather than requiring TR-YOS, so always check the specific admission page for each university and program you are targeting before assuming which exam applies. Requirements can differ by institution and change between academic years.

How ASEAN applicants typically approach it

• Identify your target universities first, then check each one's international student admission page for its specific exam requirement

• Register for an exam center near you if one exists. Several Turkish universities run YOS centers across Asia, though availability by country changes year to year

• If no center is available in your home country, plan for a center in a neighboring country or in Turkey itself, factoring in visa and travel timing before the exam date

• Submit your YOS score alongside your secondary school transcript and diploma as part of the university's own application, separate from any scholarship application

• Check whether your target university also requires a Turkish or English language proficiency result on top of the YOS score

YOS and scholarships

A high YOS score can support applications for university-level scholarships that some Turkish institutions offer directly to strong international applicants, separate from the centrally run Turkiye Burslari program. These are set and funded by individual universities, so terms, coverage and competitiveness vary widely by school. If a Turkiye Burslari award is your main goal, focus your preparation on that application's own timeline and requirements, and treat YOS as the separate path for direct university applications, since the two systems are not interchangeable and success in one does not guarantee results in the other.

For current exam centers, dates and language options in a specific country, check the Higher Education Council (YOK) international student pages and the admissions pages of the specific Turkish universities you are considering, since these details change between academic years.

Preparing for the exam

Because YOS tests reasoning speed as much as raw content knowledge, timed practice matters more than broad review. With 80 questions in 90 minutes, you have roughly one minute per question on average, and the geometry and logic sections often take longer per question than the arithmetic sections. Working through official or university-published sample question sets under timed conditions before exam day helps you judge your actual pace rather than guessing at it.

Students coming from ASEAN secondary systems generally find the mathematics content itself manageable, since it draws on standard secondary-level algebra and geometry rather than advanced topics. The bigger adjustment tends to be exam format and time pressure, particularly for applicants more used to written or essay-based assessment than fast multiple-choice reasoning tests.

YOS compared to other entry routes

Some applicants sit YOS as a backup even while applying to Turkiye Burslari, since the two processes run on different timelines and a YOS result keeps the direct-application route open if the scholarship application does not succeed.