Fuat Sezgin Anatolian High School, Bursa: A Student's View

I'm a 9th grade student at Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Anatolian High School in Bursa. In this post I write about why I came to this school and the butterfly effect it had on me.

How I got here

In 8th grade I studied hard for my school exams, and I got my best grades that year. But it only hit me that I was taking the LGS, Turkey's high school entrance exam, five weeks before it, and I started studying for it in the last four weeks. If I had understood how much that exam mattered the way I now understand the YKS, the university entrance exam, everything would have been different. I'm sure of that. At the very least I could have gone to Yıldız Anatolian High School.

My first target was Ahmet Vefik Paşa Anatolian High School. Once I was sure I wouldn't get in there, I aimed for Yıldız Anatolian High School, because I saw it as a good school within reach.

When the LGS results came out, I tried to believe I had made it into Yıldız Anatolian, but deep down I could tell I hadn't. My percentile left me about 5 points short.

I didn't get into this school with my LGS score. I got in with my OBP, my middle school grade average. The school takes students without the exam, based on the OBP.

My first day

On the first day, in the first minutes, I was in a class with two students who had repeated a year. We had about one lesson with my biology teacher, Birhan Aydoğdu. When we went into the second lesson, a student came into the class and read out my name, and I moved to the class I'm in now.

The view from my new classroom was perfect, and nobody in the class had repeated a year, which was good for me. I don't think I was very social in the first week. I'm only now starting to get to know my classmates.

What the school is like

What I like most about the school is my teachers. What I don't like is the way the school treats its students.

I'd be honest with anyone thinking about this school: it doesn't have much of a university track record. Anyone who wants to go to universities like METU, Boğaziçi or ITU has to be a huge exception here. They have to prove themselves and fight against their surroundings.

The school opened in 2020 and had its first graduates in 2024. In 2024 and 2025, the best placement in the science and math track was Materials Science and Engineering at Eskişehir Technical University; nobody got into METU, Boğaziçi or ITU (sinavizcisi.com, data from YÖK Atlas and ÖSYM).

The butterfly effect

Now I see the YKS as something I have to take seriously. My goal is a strong science and math program at METU, Boğaziçi, ITU or Hacettepe. Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I go to these universities, build good connections and meet good people?

For the YKS, I'm already paying attention in class and doing my homework. Soon I'll also start reviewing every day on a regular schedule.

For anyone preparing for the LGS

I'd tell anyone preparing for the LGS to start with math early and make it their priority. I'd also want them to understand how the new-style questions are built and to solve lots of them.