Lawsuit Filed to Annul Controversial Math Question in Turkey's 2026 University Entrance Exam

The 2026 Turkish University Entrance Exam (YKS) is once again facing legal controversies. According to reports published on July 7, 2026, a formal lawsuit has been submitted to the administrative court to annul a key mathematics question in the second stage of the exam (AYT) [1]. This legal action follows an earlier move by the Turkish Assessment, Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) on July 1, where they only changed the correct option for the question.

Details of the Lawsuit Against ÖSYM The incident began when Doruk Kerem Atam, a candidate from Sakarya, filed a lawsuit requesting a stay of execution for the results and the complete annulment of Math Question 23 [3]. He believes that changing the correct option from 'C' to 'A' by ÖSYM is not sufficient to ensure educational justice and that the scientific nature of the question is such that it must be entirely removed from the score calculation [2]. This question, which concerns the topic of 'Derivatives' in advanced mathematics, has faced serious criticism from professors and educational experts since the exam was held in June [4].

Math Question 23: From Key Change to Annulment Request In its initial reviews at the beginning of July, ÖSYM admitted that the original answer key for Math Question 23 was incorrect and corrected it [5]. However, many candidates and experts argue that the ambiguity in the question's phrasing caused many students to lose significant time or refrain from answering due to scientific contradictions. The filed lawsuit emphasizes that according to national exam regulations, questions with scientific ambiguity or multiple answers must be completely annulled as per Article 3.10.1 of the 2026 Exam Manual [4].

Legal Process and Timing of the Final Verdict After receiving the complaint, the administrative court requested a formal defense from ÖSYM. Following legal procedures, a scientific committee consisting of university professors will be appointed as experts to conduct a detailed technical review of the question [2]. It is expected that after this committee submits its report, the court will issue its final verdict within a maximum of 15 days [3]. If an annulment is ordered, the math scores of all candidates will be recalculated based on the remaining questions, which could lead to extensive changes in national rankings [1].

ÖSYM's Reaction to the Recent Crisis Sources close to ÖSYM have stated that the institution is prepared for any potential scenario, including the annulment of the question by the court, and has prepared its 'Plan B' for a rapid revision of rankings to ensure the candidate's department selection process is not delayed [4]. Previously in the same exam, Question 20 of the Persian Literature and Social Sciences-1 section was completely annulled due to errors in the names of literary figures [5].