Mistakes in the printed versions of the booklets for the higher education license exam, or ALES, have given way to irregularities in an examination center in the Aegean province of İzmir.
The irregularities started when they found that the number of test takers exceeded the number of booklets delivered to the site. Then it was discovered that there were missing questions and the page order was mixed up in the booklets. As well, there were not enough reserve booklets at the exam center, and extra booklets had to be brought from the neighboring province of Manisa, although they were not enough either. The exam starting time was postponed by one hour.
The 500 students who sat for the exam for the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at İzmir’s Dokuz Eylül University were unable to start the test at the scheduled time, 9:30 a.m., due to printing errors identified in their exam booklets. When the exam monitors found that even the reserve booklets were not enough, they asked for extra booklets from Manisa’s Celal Bayar University.
Despite all efforts to equip every student with a booklet, the extra ones were still not sufficient. Students who were left without a booklet were not allowed to leave the exam room for 135 minutes, according to the exam regulations. The exam’s scheduled running time for the students who waited for extra booklets was postponed by one hour. Thus, the examination started at 10:30 a.m. and ended at 1:30 p.m.
“There has been a mistake in printing the booklets. Pages were printed in the wrong order, and the booklet numbers were also different. A number of students have been affected by this situation,” said Hüsnü Erkan, İzmir’s provincial representative for the country’s exam authority, the Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM. He added that some students left the exam center without answering a single question.
“I opened the booklet, there were missing pages and two of them were empty. The page order was also wrong. I did not solve any questions, just sat in the classroom. I feel very depressed. I graduate in five months, but my dreams will not come true,” said Selen Şenbahar, who had entered the examination in order to be eligible to apply for a master’s program.
The booklets were reportedly printed by Meteksan, the printing house that was recently involved in a scandal regarding allegations of a “code” for the university entrance exam, or YGS, which took place March 27.
Meanwhile, a “headscarf crisis” occurred at an ALES exam center in Istanbul’s Fatih district, where students wearing a headscarf had been first taken to the school’s garden by the exam center’s administrators, but had finally allowed them to enter the exam on time, according to a report published online on daily Zaman’s website.
The ALES examination, which is organized by the Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM, is a compulsory requirement for the appointment of lecturers, instructors, research assistants, experts, translators as well as education and learning planners in higher education institutions in Turkey.
