Originally six Maarif Koleji were established in six major cities of Turkey -- Istanbul, Izmir, Samsun, Konya, Eskişehir, and Diyarbakır -- in 1955, based on a special law enacted by the Turkish Parliament.
These schools admitted students based on an academic test administered at the end of grade 5, which was the basic elementary education back then.
[4] But the rapid increase in the number of these schools brought a problem: There weren't enough teachers whom were qualified to teach in foreign language.
[3][6][7] Last exam (LGS) is different from the others because not all students are required to take it, so there are two ways to get into an Anatolian High School in the current system.
Students with good GPA enter this exam and they get the chance to apply to top quality Anatolian High Schools around Turkey.
With the new placement system in 2018, the number of Anatolian High Schools which required entrance exam was decreased to 222.