Iranian University Entrance Exam

The Iranian University Entrance Exam also known as the Concours (from the French; Konkoor, Konkour, and Konkur are transliterations of the Persian) is a standardized test used as one of the means to gain admission to higher education in Iran. Generally, to get Ph.D. in non-medical majors, there are 3 exams, all of them called Concour. In recent years there was parliament bill to gradually eliminate this entrance exam to enter universities in Iran.

In June each year, high school graduates in Iran take a stringent, centralized nationwide university entrance exam, called the Concours, seeking a place in one of the public universities. The competition is fierce and the exam content rigorous since the seats at universities are limited. In recent years, although the government has responded to demands for improved access and to a rapid increase in the rising number of applicants by enlarging the capacity of universities and creating Azad University, public universities are still only able to accept 10 percent of all applicants.

In Iran, as in many other countries where a university entrance exam is a sole criterion for student selection. Concours is a comprehensive, 4.5-hour multiple-choice exam that covers all subjects taught in Iranian high schools—from math and science to Islamic studies and foreign language. The exam is so stringent that normally students spend a year preparing for it; those who fail are allowed to repeat the test in the following years until they pass it.

A very lucrative cram industry offers courses to enthusiastic students. The Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology has established the Education Evaluation Organization to oversee all aspects of the test.

As the sole criterion for student admissions into universities in Iran, Concours has gone through many phases. In prerevolutionary Iran, the exam was—as currently—a comprehensive test of knowledge and assessment of academic achievement for admissions. However, the problem in this era was that the selection methods provide advantages to candidates from urban areas, especially those from the upper and upper-middle classes with better education and preparation. Thus, almost 70 to 80 percent of university entrants came from large urban cities.

In the early years of postrevolutionary Iran, the purpose of testing shifted from being just a mere test of knowledge to an instrument to ensure the "Islamization of universities," aimed at admitting students committed to the ideology of the revolution. The university entrance exam judged admissions candidates not only by their academic test score but also by their social and political background and loyalty to the Islamic government.

...
Wikipedia