The National Assessment Exam is the threshold that hundreds of thousands of students await with great emotion every year, admission to high school depends on obtaining the best possible average. However, there are also students who are not required to take this exam to secure their place.
The Ministry of Education and Research recently published in decisional transparency the methodology that regulates, for the 2026-2027 school year, admission to high school without taking the National Assessment exam.
Which students can enroll in high school without taking the 2026 National Assessment
Admission without an exam is open to 8th grade graduates who obtained, during high schoolthe first prize at the national stage of the school olympiads organized and financed by the Ministry of Education and Research or have obtained the first, second or third prizes, respectively the gold, silver or bronze medal at international competitions recognized by the Ministry of Education and Research.
Only graduates benefit from this admission option from the current series who wish to participate in admission to high school education, including technological high school education and dual technological high school education. They can participate in the enrollment process in the 9th grade in one county, without supporting the national assessment and without supporting the aptitude tests, respectively the modern or native language knowledge verification tests and respectively, without calculating their admission average, it is mentioned in the document displayed on the ministry’s website.
Admission, on special places
Students who obtained the first, second, third prize or mention at international school olympiads, or who obtained the first prize at the national stage of the school olympiads, can benefit from direct admission to high school, without taking the National Assessment, on additional places, so that the places intended for the usual distribution are not affected.
Prizes won at the previously mentioned competitions are not a guarantee of admission to any field/profile/specialization, the normative act also establishing a list regarding the correspondence of the specifics of the national Olympiad/international competition with the field/profile/specialization/field of professional training to which enrollment is made.
What are the registration stages?
The stages of enrollment and assignment in the 9th grade, in the 2026-2027 school year, of the 8th grade graduates who obtained, during the gymnasium, the mentioned awards are as follows:
a) submission of files to the school inspectorate;
b) analysis of the files by the county/municipality admission commission;
c) communication of the result of the allocation of graduates;
d) taking over the files of the graduates from the school inspectorate and submitting them to the educational units to which they were assigned;
e) transmission by the high school education units, respectively by the educational units that have educational offer for professional education or dual education, of the situation regarding the completion of the enrollment of graduates;
f) completing in SIIIR the data related to the eighth grade graduates enrolled in the ninth grade based on performance.
There is also one deadline for the registration and distribution of graduates: August 31, 2026.
Can you be admitted to military high school without a National Assessment?
The provisions of the published methodology can also be applied to enrollment in the national military colleges of the Ministry of National Defense, on the vocational track, the military profile. The condition is, however, that the graduates take all the eliminative selection tests provided for the military profile in annex no. 3 to the Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 6.060/2025 and be declared “ADMISS”/”APT” to them.
List of Olympiads recognized by the Ministry of Education
In the document developed by the Ministry of Education, you can find the list (which you can find below) of officially recognized school competitions and Olympiads for admission to high school without National Assessment and the correspondence with the profiles/specializations.
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Among the most famous competitions that give students the possibility of admission to high school without the National Assessment exam are: National Mathematics Olympiad, National Physics Olympiad, National Informatics Olympiad, National Chemistry Olympiad, National Biology Olympiad, National Romanian Language and Literature Olympiad, National Modern Languages Olympiad, National History Olympiad, National Geography Olympiad, etc.
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In the case of the international stages, the competitions are organized under the auspices of international educational bodies and are officially recognized by the ministry.
Full list INCLUDES 53 national competitions and 35 international competitions.
What the file must contain
Students who apply for admission to high school in 2026 without a National Assessment must submit to the county/municipality admissions committee of Bucharest a file containing the following documents:
– application for enrollment in high school education, for the school year 2026 – 2027, based on the outstanding performances obtained at the national Olympics or international competitions obtained during secondary school, with the expression of an option regarding the branch/profile/specialization/field of professional training/the pair of level 3 professional qualification and level 4 professional qualification; for the educational units that offer professional qualifications in a dual regime, the option for the dual regime will also be mentioned as the case may be;
– documents proving the prizes obtained, in original and in copy;
– the identity card (if applicable) and the birth certificate, certified copy “In accordance with the original” by the person in the commission vested with such powers;
– the transcript for the 5th – 8th grades (with the calculation of the general average) and the medical record, in the original and in a copy.
Students from two other categories can also be admitted to special places:
– students of Roma ethnicity – for whom separate places are reserved in high schools each year, within an educational inclusion program coordinated by the Ministry of Education, admission being carried out on the basis of a special procedure and documents certifying ethnic affiliation;
– students with special educational needs (CES) – who can benefit from dedicated places in high schools depending on the recommendations of specialists and the school orientation established by the evaluation commissions.
