Turkish Preparatory Exemption Procedures

TURKISH PREPARATORY PROGRAM EXEMPTION PROCEDURES

Students may begin their academic program (first year) without attending the Turkish Preparatory Program if they meet any one of the following four conditions:

• Passing the examination administered by the Turkish Preparatory Coordination Office,
• Submitting a certificate issued by the Yunus Emre Institute, E-YDTS (administered by ÖSYM), or a Turkish Language Teaching Center of a university,
• Having completed the final three years of high school at a Turkish school where the language of instruction is Turkish,
• Being deemed successful based on the average of the achievement scores obtained throughout the educational process conducted by the Turkish Preparatory Coordination Office.

Exemption through the Turkish Exemption Examination

The Turkish Exemption Examination, administered by the Turkish Preparatory Coordination Office at the beginning and end of each term, is designed to determine students’ current Turkish language proficiency and assess whether they qualify for exemption from the preparatory program. The examination consists of two stages, and the assessment process is conducted in accordance with the principles of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
In the first stage, students’ listening, reading, and writing skills are assessed. Based on the results of this stage, students are classified into three groups according to their performance.

• Students who obtain 75% or above of the total score on the written examination, which consists of listening, reading, and writing components, meet the direct exemption criterion and are exempt from the Turkish Preparatory Program.
• Students who do not meet the direct exemption criterion but satisfy the minimum achievement requirements specified in the relevant directive are eligible to take the second stage, the speaking examination. In the speaking examination, students’ oral expression, fluency, pronunciation, use of grammar, vocabulary, and communicative competence are assessed according to level-appropriate evaluation criteria.
• After all stages of the exemption examination have been completed, students who meet the achievement criteria specified in the Turkish Preparatory Coordination Office Directive are exempt from the preparatory program. Students who do not meet the required achievement criteria are placed in the appropriate level of the Turkish Preparatory Program according to their current language proficiency and begin their studies.

Exemption Based on the Academic-Year Average:

At the end of the academic year, the student’s year-end achievement score is calculated by assigning a 25% weight to each of the A1, A2, B1, and B2 level achievement scores.

To qualify for exemption based on the academic-year average, the following conditions must be met:

• The student must not have repeated any level.
• The student must have successfully completed at least the B2 level and must have an overall achievement average of 80 or above across all examinations taken up to and including the A1, A2, B1, and B2 levels (quiz, story exam, midterm examination, and presentation).

Students who meet the conditions stated above are not required to take the exemption examination separately.

Exemption Based on Documentation:

To have a request for exemption from the Turkish Preparatory Program evaluated, the student must send all of the documents listed below together in a single email, in PDF format, to [email protected].
The required documents are as follows:

1. Passport photograph
2. A certificate issued by the Yunus Emre Institute, E-YDTS (administered by ÖSYM), or a Turkish Language Teaching Center of a university, or a transcript covering the final three years of high school,
3. Exemption petition (available in the Forms and Petitions section of our website).

Once all of these documents have been submitted in full to [email protected], exemption requests are evaluated and students are informed of the outcome.