TEHRAN — The Iranian university entrance exam, also known as Konkur, is held every year in June or July nationwide and in some other countries as well. This year, Konkur was held on Thursday and Friday.

Used as one of the means to gain admission to higher education in Iran the high school graduates take the stringent entrance exam seeking a place in one of the public universities.

The competition is fierce and the exam content rigorous as the seats at the charge-free public universities is limited, although some opt for Azad universities which charge students with tuition.

Every year at the beginning of the summer the exam will be held and students vie to get the best result possible as their future is mostly determined by how they perform at this exam. Their stressed out parents also stay out of the universities where their children are taking the exam praying for them to do their best.

While the majority of the applicants for the exam are aged 19 (the age when they graduate from high school in Iran) the youngest applicant of this year’s exam was a 15-year-old girl and the oldest was an 80-year-old man.

This year, nearly 1.014 million individuals took part in the exam.

MQ/MG