His parents must be so proud

A Turkish student said he was poised to set a record at a nationwide university entrance exam... by giving the wrong answer to all 180 questions. Speaking to reporters after Sunday's exam, which 1.5 million youths sat, Sefa Boyar said he was hopeful he would achieve the record.

"I'm confident. It's a very high possibility that I will end up with zero correct answers," he told Anatolia news agency.

Boyar has been the focus of media attention since he announced last month he would attempt to give wrong answers to all 180 questions in protest against the country's notoriously complicated university entrance exam, an ordeal for students and families.

Boyar, who is already studying construction engineering at a leading Ankara university, explained that he studied hard ahead of the exam because he still had to find the right answers before marking a wrong one.

Since four wrong answers eliminate one correct one, Boyar is aiming at a total of minus 45 points.

For Turkish youths, the centralized exam is a culmination of years of study, both at schools and on costly private courses. Only about a quarter succeed.

A university degree is widely seen as a job guarantee in a country where unemployment is running at more than 10 percent. The exam is a often a cause of depression for the youths, who are aided by advisors and psychologists throughout the preparation process.

Each year, the exam day becomes a national experience as authorities rearrange traffic around schools and ban drivers from using horns, while TV stations carry live broadcasts in which experts announce the right answers to the questions after the exam.

Critics have long urged a comprehensive education reform to encourage more students unlikely to get through the exam to apply instead to vocational high schools.