Greek university entrance exams continue with Ancient Greek, Mathematics and Biology

The 2026 Panhellenic Examinations for general lyceum (GEL) candidates continued on Wednesday 3 June with the first orientation-group papers, a stage widely regarded as decisive for entry into top-choice university programmes. Candidates from the Humanities orientation group sat Ancient Greek, those from the Sciences and Economics/Informatics groups took Mathematics, and the Health Sciences group was examined in Biology.

Exam-day logistics

All candidates were required to be in examination rooms by 08:00 a.m., with papers starting at 08:30 a.m. The standard duration for each subject is three hours. The education ministry released the question papers shortly after the exams began, and several tutoring organisations published early assessments of their difficulty.

Early teacher assessments

Teachers from the Orosimo Piraeus tutoring centre described the Biology questions as clearly worded and manageable, though they noted that question A1 required care and that the third and fourth topics contained some demanding sub-questions needing solid practice. In Mathematics, topics A, B and C were described as accessible, while topic D presented a modest increase in difficulty, with sub-questions C3 and C4 requiring particular attention. For Ancient Greek, the taught-text section held no major surprises, though question B2 needed special care; the unseen translation was described as demanding because of certain terms that could trouble candidates when rendering them into Modern Greek, even though the syntax was not especially difficult.

What comes next

The GEL exams continue on Friday 5 June with Latin (Humanities), Chemistry (Sciences and Health Sciences) and Informatics (Economics and Informatics). The final GEL sitting is on Monday 8 June, covering History, Physics and Economics. Candidates from vocational lyceums (EPAL) sit speciality subjects from 4 to 15 June, while special-subject and music exams run from 16 to 25 June. Health checks and practical tests for sports-science (TEFAA) applicants are scheduled from 15 to 26 June.

The stakes

Candidates are competing for 68,788 places in Greek higher education for the 2026–2027 academic year. The first exam day, on 29 May, covered Modern Greek Language and Literature, with the essay topic focused on loneliness and old age; the literary text was Andreas Empeirikos's poem "Who lives and who dies."