ENT

Overview

The Unified National Testing (ЕНТ, Единое национальное тестирование; also written UNT in English) is Kazakhstan's national university entrance exam, taken by secondary-school graduates and administered by the National Testing Center under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. A candidate's ENT score is used both to compete for admission to a Kazakh university and to compete for a state-funded education grant, which covers tuition for the highest-ranked applicants.

Who can apply

Current-year graduates of Kazakh secondary schools register for the main ENT session as part of finishing school. Graduates from earlier years, college (technical and vocational) graduates, and ethnic-Kazakh repatriates (kandasy) can also register, mainly to compete for admission to a paid ("contract") place rather than a state grant. Applicants register and submit their subject choices online through the National Testing Center's application system (app.testcenter.kz) or its mobile app.

Exam pattern

Every candidate sits three compulsory subjects plus two elective "profile" subjects chosen to match the university programme they intend to apply for.

The maximum possible score is 140 points. The two profile subjects are picked as a pair to match the target degree programme; reported common pairings include Mathematics with Physics, Mathematics with Informatics, Biology with Chemistry, Biology with Geography, and World History with a foreign language or with Basics of Law. Candidates applying to creative specialties (such as music, fine art, or physical culture) sit a practical creative exam at their university in place of one or both profile subjects, in addition to the three compulsory subjects.

Each subject carries its own minimum ("threshold") score that a candidate must clear for that subject's result to count at all; reporting on recent years puts this threshold at 3 points for Mathematical Literacy and Reading Literacy and 5 points for History of Kazakhstan, with profile subjects carrying their own minimums. Falling short of a subject's threshold does not disqualify a candidate from the exam itself, but can disqualify that attempt from the state grant competition.

Marking and results

Scores from the three compulsory subjects and the candidate's two chosen profile subjects are added into a single combined ENT score out of 140. For 2026, reporting describes a combined-score threshold of 65 points for admission to Kazakhstan's national universities, 50 points for other universities, and higher subject-specific thresholds for competitive fields: 75 points for pedagogical (teacher-training) programmes, 70 points for healthcare programmes, and 75 points for law programmes. These thresholds are set for each admission year, so confirm the current year's figures on the official portal rather than assuming they repeat.

Within the main testing window, a current-year graduate can usually sit the full exam twice, and the higher of the two combined scores is the one used in the state-grant competition. Each sitting produces its own certificate, and the applicant chooses which certificate to submit when applying.

Important dates

For the 2026 admission cycle, the National Testing Center ran several ENT sessions rather than a single sitting: an early session from 10 January to 10 February 2026, a second session from 1 March to 6 April 2026, the main session from 10 May to 10 July 2026 (registration for the main session ran from 11 to 25 April 2026), and a final, August session from 10 to 20 August 2026 for candidates who still need a result for paid admission. Only the main (May-July) session counts toward the state-grant competition; the other sessions are described as being for admission to paid places only. Because this calendar is set and announced afresh each year, confirm the current cycle's exact dates on testcenter.kz before relying on any specific date.

How to apply

Current-year school graduates register for the main session through the National Testing Center's online application system (app.testcenter.kz) or its mobile app, choosing their two profile subjects to match their intended degree programme. Earlier-year graduates, college graduates, and kandasy register the same way for the sessions open to them. A current-year graduate's first attempt in the main session is free; a repeat attempt in the same session, or an attempt in one of the other sessions, carries a fee set annually by the Center (reported at 5,640 tenge per attempt for 2025).

After the exam

After the main session, applicants who want a state education grant submit their documents (ENT certificate, school certificate/diploma, and supporting paperwork) to their chosen university or universities through the Center's online "virtual admission office," during a short window reported as opening in mid-July. Universities and the Ministry then rank grant applicants for each specialty by combined ENT score against the number of state-funded places available; grant results are announced roughly a month after documents close, and grant holders must confirm enrolment with their university shortly afterward. Applicants who do not win a grant can still be admitted to a paid ("contract") place if their score clears that programme's admission threshold.

Preparation tips

• Decide on your two profile subjects early, based on the specialty you want to study, since universities publish fixed subject-pair requirements per programme.

• If eligible for two attempts in the main session, treat the first as a dry run and use the second to improve your weaker subjects, since only the better combined score is used for the grant competition.

• Practise under timed conditions for Reading Literacy and Mathematical Literacy specifically, since these are literacy-style compulsory sections rather than standard school subject tests.

• Track the combined-score thresholds for your target field (ordinary programmes, pedagogy, healthcare, law) for the current admission year, since these are set separately each year and differ sharply by field.

FAQs