Kuwait Thanawiya

Overview

Thanawiya, formally the General Secondary Education Certificate (Shahadat al-Thanawiya al-A'ama), is Kuwait's national school-leaving qualification, awarded at the end of Grade 12 under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. Kuwaiti secondary education runs for three years (Grades 10 to 12), after which students who complete the requirements receive the certificate, issued by their school and authenticated by the Ministry. The certificate both closes secondary schooling and, through the grade and track it was earned in, feeds directly into admission to Kuwait University, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), and other post-secondary institutions.

Who can apply

Thanawiya is sat by students completing Grade 12 at a Kuwaiti secondary school, public or private. Grade 10 follows a common curriculum covering Arabic, Islamic education, English, mathematics, the sciences, and social studies. From Grade 11 onward, students choose one of two tracks:

• Scientific track — built around advanced mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, generally chosen by students aiming at engineering, medicine or other science-based degrees.

• Literary track — built around Arabic-language and humanities subjects such as history, geography, sociology and economics, generally chosen by students aiming at law, arts or social-science degrees.

Islamic education and other common subjects remain part of both tracks. Regular students are registered for the exam automatically through their school as part of the normal Grade 12 academic year; a separate application process for private or returning candidates was not found on the sources checked for this file and should be confirmed with the Ministry of Education or the student's school.

Exam pattern

Every subject is marked out of 100, and the final result is reported as a percentage. The exact subject combination within each track, and how marks are split between coursework and the final exam for a given subject, is set by the Ministry each academic year; the table below gives the general shape rather than an exhaustive syllabus.

Marking and results

Kuwaiti schools report subject and overall results as a percentage. Sources checked for this file do not agree on a single minimum passing percentage: some put the overall and per-subject passing mark at around 50%, while grade-scale references used for university-admission GPA conversion treat anything below 60% as a failing ("Rasib") band, with 60–69% the lowest passing band ("Maqbool"). Treat the exact passing threshold as unconfirmed until checked on the Ministry of Education's own site. Above the passing band, results are commonly grouped into descriptive bands such as Good (roughly 70–79%), Very Good (roughly 80–89%) and Excellent (roughly 90–100%), which universities and credential-evaluation services use when converting a Thanawiya percentage to a GPA-style scale.

Important dates

Kuwait's Grade 12 exam calendar shifts each year partly to avoid overlapping with the Hijri Islamic New Year holiday, so exact dates are confirmed only close to the exam period. For the 2026 cycle, the Ministry planned for Grade 12 exams to begin around 17–21 June 2026 depending on the confirmed date of the Hijri New Year holiday, with the Scientific track finishing a day or two before the Literary and religious-education tracks. Results were expected roughly a week after exams ended. These dates are republished and sometimes revised by the Ministry each year, so current-year dates should be confirmed on the Ministry of Education's own announcements closer to the exam period.

After the exam

Once results are issued, graduates can apply to Kuwait University through its General Administration of Admission and Registration, which weighs the Thanawiya percentage together with the track it was earned in and, for some colleges, an aptitude or placement test. Different colleges set different minimum secondary-percentage requirements and track eligibility — for example, Kuwait University's published college admission rules set notably higher minimum percentages for competitive colleges such as Medicine and Dentistry than for less competitive ones, and some colleges (such as Engineering) are open mainly to Scientific-track graduates. Exact current-year percentage cutoffs change periodically and should be confirmed on the Kuwait University admission portal before relying on them. The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) also admits Thanawiya holders into its colleges and institutes, with its own percentage and track requirements per programme.

Preparation tips

• Decide between the Scientific and Literary track as early as possible, since it fixes the subjects examined in Grades 11 and 12 and which university colleges are open afterward.

• Keep both coursework and final-exam performance strong across the school year, since Kuwaiti schools generally combine classwork and exam marks into the subject result.

• Work through recent years' Ministry-released exam papers for each subject, since question style and format tend to repeat from year to year.

• Track the Ministry of Education's academic-calendar announcements each year, since the exact Grade 12 exam start date can shift close to the exam period.

• If a specific Kuwait University or PAAET programme is the goal, check that programme's current minimum percentage and track requirement directly on its admission pages rather than assuming a general threshold applies.

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