What it means
کنکور (konkor) is Iran’s national university entrance exam, a standardized, single-day test that determines which university and field of study a student can enter. The word is borrowed from the French concours, meaning competitive examination. It has no real synonym in everyday Iranian speech: when Iranians say کنکور, they mean specifically this high-stakes national test, not a general exam. The closest synonym would be آزمون سراسری (âzmune sarâsari), the official formal name, but کنکور is what everyone actually says.
How to use it
- سال دیگه کنکور دارم. (sâle dige konkor dâram.) “I have the university entrance exam next year.”
- برای کنکور چند ماهه آمادگی گرفته. (barâye konkor chand mâhe âmâdegi gerefte.) “She has been preparing for the entrance exam for several months.”
- رتبهام تو کنکور خوب شد. (rotbam tu konkor khub shod.) “My ranking in the entrance exam came out well.”
- بعد از کنکور میریم مسافرت. (bad az konkor mirim mosâferat.) “After the entrance exam we are going on a trip.”
Cultural note
کنکور is arguably the single most stressful event in Iranian teenagers’ lives. Hundreds of thousands of students sit the exam each year, competing for limited spots in public universities. The year before کنکور is often called سال کنکور (sâle konkor) and treated as a near-total sacrifice of social life: students attend specialized prep institutes called کانون (kânun) or آموزشگاه (âmuzeshgâh), take timed mock exams weekly, and sometimes stop attending regular school to focus entirely on prep. A student’s field of study and university are largely determined by their percentile rank, making the exam a major social sorting mechanism.