New ENEM (Novo ENEM)
The Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC) proposed in 2009 that the universities should use the Enem, a non-mandatory national exam, as a standard university entrance qualification test. The "new ENEM", as it is known, is composed of 180 multiple choice questions in five main areas (natural sciences, human sciences, math, Portuguese and either English or Spanish as a foreign language) and an essay.
The proposal's main objective is to democratize access to higher education, opportunities for federal jobs, academic mobility and induce the restructuring of the curricula of high school.
However, there have been several issues with the test, which hasn't yet been able to go without mistakes. There have been reported cases of leaks of the test or parts of it on more than one occasion. Also, the 2011 test received tough critics for its correction methods: many people complained their grades were arbitrary; a case became famous after one student went to federal court and requested that his written essay should be corrected again. His previous grade had been below 600 (out of 1000), but after being corrected, he got 900. That made many people realise there had been mistakes with the grading system.
The universities have the autonomy to choose whether or not they want to use the exam, and if they want to, they can also choose the way it is used:
- As a single phase, with a unified system of selection, electronic and online;
- As a first phase;
- Combined with the university's test (using it to admit only part of its students);
- As a single phase for the of the remaining chairs.
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