ALES Exam Topics: Question Types for Study in Turkey

Contents

• What does the ALES exam cover?

• How do the quantitative and verbal tests compare?

• What question forms appear in the quantitative test?

• What question forms appear in the verbal test?

• How do universities use ALES scores in admission?

• What does ALES mean for international applicants?

• Is there an official ALES topic list?

• What should you do next?

• Real-World Examples

• Frequently Asked Questions

• References

• Legal Notice

Introduction

ALES is the centralised examination administered by the Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) and used in applications to graduate programs and in academic staff recruitment in Turkey. For an applicant, the practical question is narrower: what will the questions be about? ÖSYM’s 2026 ALES application guide answers that question by naming the skills measured rather than a list of topics.

That distinction shapes this article. Section 3.1 of the 2026 guide states that the examination applies a quantitative test and a verbal test, each of 50 questions, and that the questions are not designed to measure competencies or knowledge gained in particular higher education programs. The guide also states that the examination is in Turkish. The only official window into question content, beyond that description, is the basic question booklet and answer key ÖSYM publishes after each administration; the booklet for the administration of 2 August 2026 is available in that form.

The sources used here are ÖSYM’s 2026 and 2025 application guides, that published booklet, the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training (Lisansüstü Eğitim ve Öğretim Yönetmeliği) as published by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), YÖK’s Higher Education Statistics Bulletin of 27 March 2026, and the admission pages of two universities. Application windows, examination dates and program conditions change from one period to the next, so each is dated in the text.

What does the ALES exam cover?

ALES covers two things: numerical and logical reasoning, and verbal reasoning. ÖSYM’s 2026 ALES application guide states in section 3.1 that a quantitative test of 50 questions measures numerical and logical reasoning, and a verbal test of 50 questions measures verbal reasoning. The same section states that the questions are answerable by graduates of different fields.

That is the full official description of coverage. The guide names no subject chapters, no textbook, and no distribution of questions across topics. It makes the opposite point explicitly: the questions are not meant to measure competencies or knowledge acquired in particular higher education programs. A graduate of law and a graduate of mechanical engineering sit the same two tests.

Three further features of the examination follow from the 2026 guide and matter for preparation. The answering time is 150 minutes for 100 questions, and the session begins at 10.15. The examination is in Turkish, with no English version mentioned anywhere in the guide. And results remain usable for a defined period rather than a single admission round: section 1.5 of the 2026 guide states that results are valid for five years from the date they are announced.

Eligibility is defined by degree rather than nationality. Section 1.2 of the 2026 guide states that candidates who are in a position to graduate from a bachelor’s program, candidates who have completed one, and candidates who studied abroad and hold an equivalency certificate may apply. A Certificate of Equivalence is the Council of Higher Education’s formal determination of which Turkish qualification, in which field and at which level, a diploma obtained abroad corresponds to.

How do the quantitative and verbal tests compare?

The two tests are equal in size and different in material. Each carries 50 of the 100 questions, according to section 3.1 of ÖSYM’s 2026 ALES application guide, and the 150 minutes of answering time cover both. The quantitative test is built on numerical and logical reasoning; the verbal test is built on reading and verbal reasoning. Neither test rewards knowledge from a specific degree program.

Table 1. The two ALES tests compared on size, measured skill, observable question forms and language, from ÖSYM’s 2026 application guide and the basic question booklet published for the administration of 2 August 2026

Two consequences are worth drawing out before the question forms are examined one test at a time. First, an applicant cannot shorten preparation by choosing a test: both are administered to every candidate in the same session. Second, because the guide describes skills rather than topics, a preparation plan built only on a topic list imported from another examination risks missing the reasoning formats that actually appear in the booklet. The sections below use the published booklet as the reference point for both tests.

What question forms appear in the quantitative test?

The quantitative test leans heavily on reasoning applied to supplied material. In the basic question booklet ÖSYM published for the administration of 2 August 2026, a large share of the 50 questions appear in sets attached to a table, a graph or a figure, where several questions are answered from the same data. Single questions on equations, inequalities, functions, direct computation and geometry based on a figure appear alongside those sets.

ÖSYM does not publish how many questions fall into each form, and the booklet carries no topic labels, so any distribution circulated as official should be treated as an estimate rather than a published figure. What the booklet does establish is the kind of work expected: reading a data display accurately, carrying a result from one step to the next, and handling a figure with stated conditions.

The instruction block at the head of the test is short. It states that the test contains 50 questions and that answers must be marked in the part of the answer sheet reserved for the quantitative test. No formula sheet is referenced in the booklet, and no calculator is listed among permitted items in section 3.3 of the 2026 guide, which sets out the equipment candidates may not bring.

For applicants from quantitative fields, the difficulty is rarely the arithmetic. It is time: 150 minutes across 100 questions, as stated in section 1.3 of the 2026 guide, leaves roughly a minute and a half per question on average. For applicants from other fields, the harder adjustment is that the questions arrive in Turkish, including the headings of tables and the wording of conditions.

What question forms appear in the verbal test?

The verbal test is dominated by reading. In the basic question booklet published for the administration of 2 August 2026, the largest group of questions is built on passages, with items asking what a passage conveys, what it does not mention, and how it can be summarized. Sentence and passage completion, sentence ordering, identifying the sentence that breaks a passage, and drawing a conclusion from a single statement also appear.

ÖSYM’s 2026 ALES application guide describes the whole of this test in one line: 50 questions measuring verbal reasoning. There is no vocabulary list, no literature component named in the guide, and no grammar section named in the guide. The booklet is consistent with that description, in that the questions turn on what a text establishes rather than on remembered facts about language.

The instruction block mirrors the quantitative test: 50 questions, answers marked in the section of the answer sheet reserved for the verbal test. Because the verbal test is where language load is heaviest, applicants who have studied in another language often find that reading speed in Turkish, rather than reasoning ability, sets their result on this half of the examination.

How do universities use ALES scores in admission?

An ALES score is an entry condition, not a placement result. The Regulation on Graduate Education and Training, published in the Official Gazette of 20 April 2016 under number 29690, requires applicants to hold an ALES score in the score type of the program they apply to, with a floor set in the Regulation and the applicable figure determined by each university senate. The Regulation also requires the ALES score to carry at least half the weight in admission ranking.

A master’s with thesis is a graduate program completed through coursework and the preparation of a thesis; a master’s without thesis is a coursework-focused graduate program completed with a term project instead of a thesis. The Regulation treats the two differently for admission: Article 5 permits higher education institutions not to require an ALES score for programs without a thesis, which is a permission for institutions rather than a general exemption for applicants.

Table 2. Where the ALES requirement for each application route sits in the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training, and who determines the detail

An integrated doctorate is a route allowing admission directly into a doctoral program with a bachelor’s degree, without a master’s degree. Article 16 of the Regulation attaches a higher ALES floor to that route than to entry after a master’s with thesis, which is the main reason applicants are advised to confirm the score type and the figure announced by the graduate school before registering for an administration. A graduate school is the academic unit within a Turkish university that runs graduate education and manages application and enrolment procedures.

What does ALES mean for international applicants?

For international applicants the ALES requirement is set by the university, not waived by nationality. Article 35 of the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training provides that admission procedures for foreign-national applicants, and for Turkish citizens who completed a bachelor’s degree entirely abroad, are determined by university senates. Some graduate schools apply the same requirement to every applicant, and state so in writing.

All applicants, Turkish citizen or international, have to meet the ALES or equivalent
— Middle East Technical University, Graduate School of Social Sciences, page last updated 19 August 2025

An international student is a person who is not a citizen of the Republic of Turkey and who is admitted to a higher education institution under international student status. Three practical points follow from the 2026 ALES application guide. Candidates without a Turkish identification number apply with the eleven-digit Foreign Identification Number beginning with 9, and those without one obtain it before applying. Postal applications are not accepted. Candidates abroad who cannot apply online use the channel described in section 2.1 of the guide and sit the examination in Ankara or Istanbul, and the examination centres in Nicosia and Bishkek are offered only for the first administration of the year.

Equivalent examinations are the other route. Article 16 of the Regulation refers to scores accepted as equivalent to ALES and announced by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), and universities publish conversion tables on that basis. The Graduate School of Istanbul Technical University states on its admissions page that ALES and GRE score reports are valid for five years, that a GRE quantitative score is accepted in place of ALES, and that programs may announce higher limits than the general ones. That page also notes that the ALES requirement may not apply to some programs without a thesis.

The language of the examination is the decisive factor for many applicants. Section 3.1 of the 2026 ALES application guide states that the examination is in Turkish, and the guide describes no English-language version. An applicant to an English-taught program who does not read Turkish comfortably generally has to weigh an equivalent examination against months of Turkish reading practice.

Is there an official ALES topic list?

No ÖSYM document sets out ALES topics as a syllabus. The 2026 ALES application guide describes the two tests by the reasoning they measure and states that the questions are not tied to particular higher education programs. The detailed topic tables circulated under titles such as “ALES topics and question distribution” are produced by publishers and course providers, not by the Student Selection and Placement Centre.

A second confusion concerns change. Material published around each administration often presents the 100-question, 150-minute structure and the five-year validity of results as a new arrangement. The 2025 ALES application guide, issued for the administrations of 13 April, 6 July and 23 November 2025, describes the same two tests of 50 questions, the same 150 minutes of answering time and the same five-year validity. On the points covered in this article, the two guides agree.

A third confusion is between examinations. YÖS is the examination used in international student applications to higher education programs in Turkey, and it is administered principally for undergraduate admission, which makes it a different instrument from ALES. ALES is also not a language examination: a Certificate of Turkish Proficiency and the foreign-language documents required under Articles 16 and 25 of the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training are separate requirements.

Finally, an ALES score does not complete an admission file. A scientific assessment is a written or oral evaluation of subject knowledge administered by a university as part of its graduate admissions; it is not a centralised examination and its scope varies by program. Where a graduate school applies one, preparation for it sits beside ALES preparation rather than replacing it.

What should you do next?

The next step is to confirm which score type and which examination your target program accepts, because that determines whether you register for an ALES administration at all. Programs publish their conditions per semester, and the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training leaves the figure and the score type to the university senate. Start from the program’s own announcement, then work back to the examination calendar.

The 2026 calendar in ÖSYM’s application guide shows how little slack there is between an administration and an application deadline: the third administration of 2026 falls on 29 November 2026, after an application period that ran from 7 to 15 October 2026 with a single late day on 21 October 2026. Results are announced after the administration and remain valid for five years, so a score taken early can serve several application rounds.

• Read the score type and examination requirement in the announcement of each program you intend to apply to

• Check whether the program accepts an equivalent examination instead of ALES, and which conversion table it uses

• Download ÖSYM’s current ALES application guide and note the application period, fee deadline and late application day

• Work through at least one basic question booklet and answer key published by ÖSYM, under timed conditions

• Measure your reading speed in Turkish on a passage set, and decide between Turkish practice and an equivalent examination

• Confirm whether your graduate school also applies a scientific assessment or interview

• Obtain a Foreign Identification Number before applying if you do not hold a Turkish identification number

Conditions change between application periods, and an announcement from one semester does not bind the next. Before registering for an administration, verify the examination date and the program’s requirement against the official pages of ÖSYM and the relevant graduate school.

Real-World Examples

The examples in this section are illustrative scenarios created to explain situations applicants may encounter.

Amina, applying to a master’s with thesis in economics. Amina completed her bachelor’s degree abroad and reads Turkish at an intermediate level. The graduate school she is interested in states that every applicant must meet the ALES requirement or an accepted equivalent. She sits a timed basic question booklet published by ÖSYM and finds that she answers the quantitative sets comfortably but runs out of time on the verbal passages. She has two routes to compare: several months of Turkish reading practice before an administration, or an equivalent examination if the program’s announcement accepts one. She writes to the graduate school to confirm which conversion table it applies before she registers.

Daniel, considering a master’s without thesis. Daniel wants a coursework program and assumes no examination is involved. The Regulation on Graduate Education and Training permits institutions not to require an ALES score for programs without a thesis, but the decision belongs to each institution. He checks the announcement for the semester he is applying in, rather than a page from an earlier year, and finds that the requirement differs between the two universities on his list.

Rawan, planning an integrated doctorate. Rawan holds a bachelor’s degree and hopes to enter a doctoral program without a master’s. She learns that Article 16 of the Regulation attaches a higher ALES floor to that route and that the figure is set by the university senate. Because the third administration of 2026 fell on 29 November 2026 with applications closing on 15 October 2026, she maps the next calendar before choosing a target semester, and keeps the master’s route as an alternative in the same application cycle.

Kwame, holding a score from an earlier year. Kwame sat ALES two years ago and assumes the result has expired. Section 1.5 of ÖSYM’s 2026 application guide states that results are valid for five years from the date they are announced, so his score may still be usable. He confirms the score type his target program requires, since a result in one score type does not automatically satisfy a program that asks for another.

Frequently Asked Questions

About Mezun Kampüsü
Mezun Kampüsü is a platform that brings together the graduate programs, application calendars and academic announcements of universities in Turkey. Applicants preparing for an entrance examination such as ALES can compare graduate programs through Atlas, see which application periods are open, follow announcements published by graduate schools, and begin a free application through the Universities section.

Legal Notice

This article is general information about the ALES examination and its place in graduate admission at universities in Turkey. It is not personal academic, legal or financial advice.

The main regulation referred to here is the Regulation on Graduate Education and Training, published in the Official Gazette of 20 April 2016 under number 29690 and amended on 6 March 2026 under number 33188. Regulations and institutional practice can change over time, and the conditions of individual universities and programs differ from one application period to the next. Examination dates, application windows, accepted equivalent examinations and required score types are announced by the Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) and by each graduate school.

Applicants should confirm the details that affect their own application directly with ÖSYM and with the university concerned before registering for an administration or submitting an application.