Candidate from Sakarya Sues ÖSYM Over 2026 University Entrance Exam Question

Details of the Legal Complaint by the Sakarya Candidate Following the administration of the Turkish Higher Education Institutions Examination (YKS) in June 2026, a candidate residing in Sakarya province filed a formal complaint against the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM). According to a report by the local media outlet "Medyabar," the candidate believes that one of the questions in the exam lacked the necessary scientific precision and that the correct answer provided by the organization is inconsistent with academic logic [3].

This complaint, submitted to the Administrative Court, requests an expert review of the question and, if an error is confirmed, its cancellation for all candidates. This legal move reflects the high sensitivity of candidates in Sakarya regarding educational fairness in one of Turkey's most competitive national exams [3].

Official Decision by ÖSYM: Cancellation and Key Changes Simultaneous with this lawsuit, ÖSYM released an official statement on July 1, 2026, announcing that changes were made to the exam results after reviewing scientific objections. According to the announcement, question number 20 in the "Turkish Literature and Social Sciences-1" (AYT) test was completely cancelled due to a typographical error in the names of the characters in the novel "Handan" by Halide Edib Adıvar (writing Nermin instead of Neriman) [1][2].

Additionally, in the Mathematics section of the AYT exam, the answer key for question number 23, which concerned the analysis of a derivative graph and finding the roots of a function, was changed from option "C" to option "A." The organization emphasized that these decisions were made following detailed item analysis and scientific evaluations by expert committees [2][5].

Impact of Changes on Final Results and Rankings According to the rules of the Turkish national exam, questions cancelled by ÖSYM or judicial authorities are removed from the scoring cycle, and their points are redistributed among the remaining valid questions. This could slightly alter the final rankings of millions of candidates [1][4].

With the final results of the 2026 Turkish university entrance exam scheduled for release on July 22, 2026, judicial authorities are expected to handle the Sakarya candidate's complaint with urgency to prevent any infringement on the rights of other participants. Educational experts have advised candidates to review their estimated scores based on the revised answer keys until the final results are announced [4][6].