Armenia Unified

Overview

Armenia's unified exams (միասնական քննություններ) combine the grade 12 secondary-school leaving exams and university entrance exams into a single sitting. They are run by the Assessment and Testing Center (Գնահատման և թեստավորման կենտրոն, also referred to as ATC), a body under Armenia's Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. A candidate's unified exam results decide both whether they receive their school-leaving certificate and which university programme, if any, they are admitted to, replacing what used to be two separate sets of exams.

Who can apply

Current grade 12 students completing general secondary education sit the unified exams as part of their final year, registering through their school. Earlier-year graduates and other external candidates who already hold a secondary-school certificate can also register, to compete for university admission only, since they already hold their leaving certificate. Applicants register online through the dimord.am applicant portal; current grade 12 students typically get a personal registration code from their school, while other applicants get one from the Assessment and Testing Center directly.

Exam pattern

Every candidate takes a small set of compulsory subjects, plus any elective subjects required by the specific university programme they are applying to. Reporting on recent years describes registered applicants sitting a maximum of two unified exams in total, regardless of which institution they are applying to, since one or more of a candidate's required subjects can often be satisfied by a school final exam instead of a separate unified exam.

For 2026, the Assessment and Testing Center ran the exams in two phases: a first phase in January-February 2026 and a second phase in June 2026, covering the same subject list, so a candidate could choose which phase to sit a given subject in and carry that score forward. The Center's confirmed second-phase 2026 schedule was: Biology and Geography on 12 June; Foreign languages on 16 June; Mathematics on 19 June; Armenian language and literature on 23 June; Chemistry and Russian on 26 June; and Physics and Armenian history on 30 June.

Marking and results

Each unified exam subject is scored on a 20-point scale. A score of 8.00 or above is a passing ("positive") grade; a raw score below 8 that rounds up to 8.0 under the Center's rounding rule is recorded as a pass, while scores above 8 keep their decimal value. For university admission, a candidate's relevant subject scores are combined into a single admission score per programme, and applicants are ranked against the number of seats a programme has available.

Tuition status for Armenian-citizen applicants is tied to the combined score band, reported for recent admission cycles as: a combined score of 36-40 qualifying for a full tuition waiver plus a monthly state scholarship; 32-35.99 qualifying for a full tuition waiver without the scholarship; and 24-31.99 qualifying for a 50% tuition discount. Applicants scoring below these bands can still be admitted to a paid ("contract") seat if their score clears the programme's admission threshold. Exact score bands and seat numbers are set for each admission year, so check the current year's figures on the official portal rather than assuming they repeat.

Important dates

For the 2025-2026 admission cycle, the Assessment and Testing Center ran unified exams in two phases: a first phase in January-February 2026 and a second (main) phase in June 2026, with the second phase's exact subject dates confirmed only in May 2026. Online registration for exams and specialty choices, and the window for submitting university applications, open and close on dates set separately each year by the Center and announced on dimord.am; recent cycles have opened registration for the first exam phase in the preceding autumn. Because these dates move every year, confirm the current cycle's registration and exam calendar directly on dimord.am before relying on any specific date.

How to apply

Current grade 12 students register through their school, which provides the personal code needed to create an account on the dimord.am applicant portal; external candidates (earlier-year graduates, candidates from other school systems) obtain their code directly from the Assessment and Testing Center. Through the portal, a candidate registers for the specific unified exam subjects their target university programmes require, and separately submits their university and specialty (programme) preferences during the application window the Center publishes each year. A candidate may list more than one university and specialty, ranked by preference.

After the exam

Passing the compulsory school-leaving subjects (Armenian language and literature, Armenian history, Mathematics) at or above the passing grade earns the secondary-school certificate. Separately, applicants are admitted to university programmes by ranking their combined score for each programme's required subjects against the number of government-funded ("state order") and paid ("contract") seats that programme has for the year; the most competitive programmes, such as dentistry, general medicine and law, require higher combined scores because far more applicants compete for each available seat than in less competitive programmes.

Preparation tips

• Check the specific subject requirements published by each university programme of interest before registering for unified exams, since only the subjects a target programme asks for are worth sitting as electives.

• Decide which phase (January-February or June) suits each subject, since a candidate can take the same subject in either phase and carry forward whichever score they prefer to submit.

• Keep the personal registration code from your school (or the Assessment and Testing Center) secure, since it is required to access the dimord.am applicant portal for both exam registration and the later university application step.

• Track the combined-score bands for tuition waivers and state-funded seats for the current admission year on the official portal, since both the score thresholds and the number of available seats are set separately each year.

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