With so many college options available, choosing a quality course is no easy task. The question always remains: what parameters should be analyzed? To help students with this step, the Ministry of Education (MEC) conducts an evaluation of higher education institutions. Therefore, it uses the score from the National Student Performance Examination (Enade).

But do you know what Enade is, who should take it, and why it's important? Many students who haven't even started their studies yet... Higher education They have doubts regarding this much-discussed exam.

Therefore, to help you understand these and other issues, we have prepared this post. Keep reading to learn more about this assessment.

What is Enade?

It is an exam administered by the MEC (Brazilian Ministry of Education) since 2004 to students in the initial and final semesters of undergraduate courses. colleges Brazilian. Enade is part of the National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education (Sinaes) and is conducted by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep).

The idea is to evaluate the performance of undergraduate students in relation to the knowledge and skills required for that profession. It therefore serves as a benchmark for analyzing... academic quality of the course in question and not to assess the individual performance of the candidate.

It occurs annually, but not all degrees are evaluated at the same time. There are three groups of courses that alternate year after year, separated based on the broad area of knowledge to which they belong. They are:

• Green group (Enade 2019) – Bachelor's and technologist degrees in the areas of Health and Agricultural Sciences;
• Blue group (Enade 2020) – Bachelor's and technologist degrees in the field of Exact Sciences, in addition to teaching degrees in all their specializations;
• Red group (Enade 2021) – Bachelor's and technologist degrees in the areas of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities.

Furthermore, the Enade score ranges from 1 to 5. It works as follows:

• A course with a grade of 3 is at or near average and is considered satisfactory, meaning it meets the requirements of the MEC (Brazilian Ministry of Education).;
• With a score of 1 or 2, the course is below average and considered unsatisfactory;
• In concepts 4 and 5, the course is above average, which indicates a higher standard of quality.

What is the importance of this assessment?

Now that you've seen what Enade is, you must be curious to understand its importance. Know that, through it, it's possible to learn about the quality of undergraduate courses offered throughout the country—both in public and private institutions.

This is because the results of this exam are used by the Ministry of Education to assign the Preliminary Course Concept (CPC).

This is a grade that each higher education course receives — it's a value that considers, in addition to the Enade exam, the infrastructure, the degree offered by the institution. faculty and the pedagogical organization that the institution offers to its students.

The CPC is an index that ranges from 1 to 5 and determines whether or not an undergraduate course will continue in the country. If the score is 1 or 2, the MEC (Ministry of Education) evaluators visit the institution and may apply some administrative measures.

If there is no improvement in the issues raised, the college may receive a penalty, such as the suspension of the opening of new vacancies for that category.

At this point, it's worth highlighting that, despite their similarities, the Enade and CPC scores are different. However, the former is part of the latter, and that's precisely why taking the latter is so important.

What is the purpose of the Enade exam?

As you saw, one of the main objectives of Enade is to evaluate the quality of Brazilian higher education through the academic performance of incoming and graduating students.

Therefore, the most practical consequence is the updating of quality indicators used by the Ministry of Education (MEC) to monitor pedagogical projects, faculty, technical staff, and other aspects of educational institutions.

More broadly, this type of evaluation also informs the Ministry of Education's decisions regarding investments in higher education, the adequacy of national guidelines, and the agency's general recommendations for the heads of educational institutions.

Finally, another important purpose of the Enade exam is to help prospective students choose an educational institution. The results are public and you can access them through the "Advanced Search" tab on the website. e-Mec portal.

Which students are required to take the exam? Is it mandatory?

Participation in the Enade exam is mandatory for students who meet the eligibility criteria. In these cases, the student cannot graduate and obtain their diploma if they do not take the exam, since regular participation in the exam is recorded on their undergraduate academic transcript.

Do these students need to worry about registering? No. This step is the responsibility of the course coordinators, who register the candidates eligible to take the Exam.

The Enade exam must be taken by students in their first and final semesters of undergraduate courses in areas selected by the MEC (Ministry of Education). See the specific requirements for each group.

New entrants

Students entering the program are those who have completed up to 25% of the course's total hours by the end of the registration period, which corresponds to up to 2 completed semesters for courses with an 8-semester duration, for example.

Only students who enrolled in the academic year in which the Enade exam is administered fall into this category. This means that students who entered the course more than 1 year ago but did not reach the 25% course load for any reason, such as course withdrawals or failures, can no longer participate.

Graduates

For those completing higher education, the rule varies according to the type of degree. In the case of bachelor's degree programs, it applies to students who have completed 70% or more of the course's total hours by the time registration closes, meaning they are usually in the last two semesters of their program.

What is the registration deadline for the Enade exam?

The 2020 edition of the Enade exam was scheduled for November 22nd. However, social distancing restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic led to the temporary suspension of the exams. According to Inep, the new dates will only be set after the resumption of in-person classes by higher education institutions.

However, it's worth checking the initially proposed calendar to find out the dates when the Enade exam usually takes place. Registration for eligible incoming students typically occurs between July and August. See below for other dates:

• End of May — official release of the Enade regulations;
• Mid-June — dissemination of guidelines, procedures, deadlines, and other information about the exam;
• between mid-August and November — student registration
  who are completing the course;
• between August and early September — deadline for requesting special assistance;
• possible corrections to the registration of graduating students;
• September to November — deadline for mandatory completion of the student questionnaire. Inep portal;
• Early November — announcement of test locations.

Generally, the results are released in the third quarter of the year following the exam.

How does the Enade exam work?

For incoming students, the Enade uses the following as an assessment tool: ENEM score from the students' perspective, since they haven't yet had enough class time to answer specific questions related to their training.

For graduating students, the Enade exam consists of 4 stages:

• Knowledge test – consisting of 40 questions, including multiple-choice and essay questions;
• Student questionnaire – this contains data relating to the characteristics and profile of the students and their academic background;
• Test perception questionnaire – information about students' perception of the questions asked;
• Course coordinator questionnaire – data on the profile of the coordinator of the evaluated undergraduate program.

Pay attention: all the details of the Enade exam are published by Inep in an official notice in the Federal Official Gazette months before it takes place. If you are eligible to take the exam soon, it's a good idea to check the necessary information to avoid any unforeseen problems. Agreed?

Now see more details about the knowledge test.

The Enade exam

The Enade exam is in-person, lasts 4 hours, and usually takes place in November. It consists of 40 questions, some covering general knowledge and others specific to the student's course of study. The distribution is as follows:

• General education – 10 questions, 8 multiple choice and 2 open-ended;
• Specific component – 30 questions, 27 multiple choice and 3 open-ended.

The section on general education aims to assess the student's ethical aspects, their perception of issues important to Brazilian society, as well as their performance in reading and... essay. This section includes questions about:

• geopolitics;
• human rights;
• environment;
• social responsibility;
• ethics, democracy and citizenship;
• culture and art etc.

The section on specific components, however, focuses on the knowledge the student has acquired from... curriculum from your course. The questions refer to content foreseen in the national curriculum guidelines, which must be followed by educational institutions in the development of the pedagogical curriculum of their courses.

Although the Enade exam does not directly interfere with a student's academic trajectory, preparing for the test is essential, as it goes hand in hand with civic responsibility and making good use of their undergraduate studies.

On the other hand, general education questions reflect knowledge necessary for life in society, while specific component questions show whether the future professional has the basic knowledge to practice the profession.

What are the application sites?

This is a very common question among students. However, rest assured—there's no reason to be confused. The exam always takes place at the same institution where you are enrolled. So, to avoid any doubts, wait for confirmation of the exam locations and check if your name is on the list.

Even if you take a distance learning course, the guidance is the same: the exam will be held at your institution's physical campus. Therefore, simply create your own study plan and... maintain organization so as not to be late.

How are the results released?

The main piece of information regarding the exam result is the number of points the student obtained. To access this data, you must once again go to your page on the Enade portal. It is worth noting that, as the results are published, the educational institution where you are enrolled will receive the so-called Enade Concept for each student.

In practice, this is general information about all students who participated in this edition. One detail is that you may occasionally come across a course classified as "No Enade Concept (SC)". This does not mean that the average grade was low, but that the course did not have enough participants for the average to be calculated.

In addition to this data, the final result provides the following information:

• Student Performance Report;
• Area Summary Report;
• Course Report;
• Institution Report;
• Technical Summary.

As you can see, these are quite relevant details for anyone who wants to analyze in more depth the performance of students from an institution on the exam. It's no coincidence that the Enade is an interesting benchmark for those who want to compare colleges or even the average scores of different courses.

How was the 2019 Enade exam?

The Enade exam in 2019 was administered on November 24th — the deadline for completing the student questionnaire was from September 2nd to November 21st. The exam results were released in October 2020.

According to notice, 23 areas of bachelor's degree courses and 6 areas of technological courses were evaluated — among them are the Computer Engineering and the Production Engineering.

After learning what Enade is, it becomes easier for students to understand the mandatory nature of participating in the exam. The score obtained in this assessment allows for the ranking of undergraduate programs throughout Brazil—which makes prospective students more confident when choosing a higher education course.