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National curriculum

نظام المسارات

Saudi secondary school and the tracks system

A common first year, then a track chosen at the end of Grade 10 that decides which university colleges will take you. It is the earliest and least discussed decision in this entire section.

When
Three years of secondary school, Grade 10–12
Where it counts
Saudi Arabia — government and most private schools

How it works

Secondary school runs three years. The first is a common year taken by everybody, and at the end of it students choose a track for the remaining two. The tracks replaced the older two-way split between علمي(science) and إداري(administrative/humanities), though almost everyone — including university staff and this site's own career pages — still uses those two words informally, and they still describe the shape of the choice accurately.

The track determines which subjects you study in depth for two years, which in turn determines which Tahsili exam you sit and which university colleges will consider your application. A student on a humanities track cannot apply to medicine, engineering or computer science at a Saudi public university; that door is closed by the track, not by the grades.

Admission to public universities is then decided by a weighted composite: your secondary school GPA, your Qudurat (General Aptitude Test) score and, for scientific and health colleges, your Tahsili (Scholastic Achievement) score. The weights vary by university and by college and are published each year. No part of that formula is your school's opinion of you — it is arithmetic, which cuts both ways.

How it is graded

Secondary school results are reported as a GPA on a 100-point percentage scale, combined with Qudurat and Tahsili into a weighted composite for university admission. A common weighting at the health and science colleges is around 30% GPA, 30% Qudurat and 40% Tahsili, but this differs by university and is republished annually.

When to sit it

The track is chosen at the end of the common first year — roughly age sixteen. Qudurat can be sat from Grade 11 onward and Tahsili is sat near the end of Grade 12. University applications open through each university's portal and through the unified admission portals in the spring and summer of Grade 12.

What it is good for

  • Every Saudi public university — this is the system they are built around.
  • Government scholarship programmes, which use the same GPA and national test scores as a starting filter.
  • Students staying in the Kingdom for their degree, which is the majority and is not a lesser option.

When it happens

Months rather than dates — the exact dates are republished every year, and the official calendar is linked below.

  1. End of the common first yearTrack selection. The decision this whole page is about, made at around sixteen.
  2. Throughout Grade 11 and 12School examinations, which accumulate into the GPA that forms a third of the admission composite.
  3. Grade 11 onwardQudurat can be sat from here, and should be.ETEC registration periods close weeks before each sitting.
  4. End of Grade 12Tahsili, then applications through the unified admission portals in the spring and summer.

The tracks

Chosen at the end of the common year. This is the decision.

Subjects that do the work inside the tracks

Choosing well

The parts a student can act on this month.

  • Treat the end of the common year as the real decision point, and work backwards from two or three colleges you might want. The track is not a preference — it is an eligibility filter, and the filter is applied automatically.
  • If you are undecided between health and engineering, note that both require the sciences and the two tracks are much closer to each other than either is to business or humanities. The expensive switch is from a non-science track into a science one, and it is close to impossible after the common year.
  • Start Qudurat preparation in Grade 11, not Grade 12. It is a reasoning test, it is sat several times a year, and the highest score counts — which means early attempts are cheap and late ones are not.
  • Your GPA is a third of the admission formula and it accumulates across two years. There is no final push that fixes it, which is the opposite of how most students treat it.
  • If you are in an international school on IGCSE, A-Levels, IB or AP and might apply to a Saudi public university, check the Ministry of Education equivalency rules and whether you will need Qudurat and Tahsili — in Grade 11. This is administrative, knowable, and routinely discovered a year too late.

What costs people a year

  • Changing track after the common year is difficult and in most schools not possible at all. The doors that close are the health colleges, the engineering colleges and computer science — the three most competitive destinations in the country.
  • The admission composite is arithmetic. A strong GPA does not compensate for a weak Tahsili at a health college where Tahsili is weighted at 40%, and no appeal process changes that.
  • Qudurat scores have a validity period and a limit on sittings. Sitting it repeatedly without preparing between attempts wastes those attempts.
  • English is the medium of instruction in most engineering and medical programmes in the Kingdom. Students who meet the admission bar but not the English bar spend an extra preparatory year — a real and common cost that is entirely avoidable.

In Saudi Arabia

This is the Saudi system, so the note runs the other way: what it means for going abroad. The Saudi secondary certificate is accepted by universities in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, but usually with a bridge — a foundation year, an international year one, or a year of university study at home first, because a three-year Saudi secondary certificate is not treated as equivalent to A-Levels or the IB on its own. Government scholarship programmes handle this routinely, and the private universities in the Kingdom have transfer agreements that do too. Plan for the bridge rather than being surprised by it.

The parts that go out of date

Everything on this page was read from the awarding body on the date below. These are the statements most likely to have moved since.

  • The tracks system is relatively recent and its details — subject allocations, the number of terms in the school year, and the exact structure of the common year — have been revised more than once since it was introduced. Confirm the current structure with your school rather than with an older description, including this one.
  • Admission weightings (the GPA / Qudurat / Tahsili split) are set per university and per college and are republished every year. Read the current admission page for the specific college.
  • Ministry of Education equivalency rules for foreign school qualifications change; check them directly rather than relying on what a previous cohort was told.

What sits alongside it

Almost nobody sits only one of these.

What to prepare with

Official material first, and free unless marked otherwise. Every link here was fetched and confirmed to resolve on the date shown.

  • Secondary school tracks (نظام المسارات)official syllabusfree

    The Ministry's own description of the common year and the five tracks. The structure has been revised more than once, so read this rather than an older summary — including this one.

    Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia · link checked 2026-09-06

  • ETEC — national tests and registrationofficial datesfree

    Qudurat, Tahsili and STEP: what they are, when they run, and where to register.

    Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) · link checked 2026-09-06

  • General Aptitude Test (قدرات)official syllabusfree

    Sit it in Grade 11. The best score counts, so an early attempt costs you nothing but the fee.

    Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) · link checked 2026-09-06

  • OpenStax free textbooksfree textbookfree

    Free university-level science and mathematics textbooks in English — useful both for Tahsili content and for the English-medium preparatory year that follows at most engineering and medical colleges.

    OpenStax, Rice University · link checked 2026-09-06

Nothing here is sold or sponsored, and there is no affiliate link on this site. Where an awarding body publishes its own past papers, those are listed instead of a revision guide — the UCAT and LNAT consortia both state outright that paid coaching is unnecessary and unendorsed, and the same is broadly true of every exam on this page.

Where this came from

Last checked 2026-09-05. Entry requirements are set by individual universities, change every year, and are the one thing on this page you should always confirm on the course page for the year you apply.