Vestibular
Encyclopedia
The Vestibular is a competitive examination
and is the primary and widespread system used by Brazil
ian universities
to select their students. The Vestibular usually takes place from November to January, right before the start of school year in February or March, although certain universities hold it every semester. The exams often span several days, usually two, with different disciplines being tested each day.
(University of São Paulo
's entry exam) pattern, which is divided into two stages or "phases". The first stage consists of multiple choice questions, including subjects such as Portuguese Language
, Portuguese Literature
and Brazilian Literature
; Math, History
, Geography
, Biology
, Physics
, Chemistry
and Foreign Language
. The answers are marked on an answer card, and they are graded afterwards by an automated optical reader
. The best scoring candidates from the multiple-choice stage proceed to the second stage, which contains write-in questions about subjects related to the candidate's major. Prospective engineering majors for example are tested in Math, Physics and Chemistry, whereas prospective Law students are required to take exams in History, Geography and Philosophy. The Portuguese language exam, which also includes a student-written essay, must be taken by all candidates irrespective of their intended majors. The exams are graded by a board of professors and candidates for each major are then classified in descending order according to their overall score in the two stages of the Vestibular. The top scorers up to the maximum number of vacancies for each field of study are allowed to enroll in their intended majors and begin college.
In other universities, the Vestibular may include only one single-stage exam where the scores for each subject tested are adjusted by weights depending on the student's major of choice. Also, in a few universities like UNESP
or UNICAMP, only write-in exams are used. Conversely, students seeking admission into some private colleges take multiple-choice exams only.
In some military engineering colleges such as ITA and IME
, the Vestibular includes exams in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Portuguese and English only. Those exams are mostly write-in and demand more from the students when compared to ordinary vestibular exams of the same subjects by other universities, being heavily influenced by mathematics competitions questions. This is done in order to let the student focus on the subjects of the college's interest while preparing for the exams.
University candidates must choose their majors by the time they sign in for the vestibular, and they cannot change their choice except through a very bureaucratic process of internal transfers within the university. Some exceptions exist, such as Engineering
in some universities, where the engineering major is chosen only after a three or four semester period.
Throughout the last decades, there has always been a gap between the few vacancies offered and the overwhelmingly high and growing demand for high quality and tuition-free public universities. The competition goes as far as having more than 100 candidates per vacancy for the most sought-after careers, such as medicine
.
or some other form of unfair or beneficial selection of candidates. It was considered by law the only authorized selection method until 1996, when the new Education Law was passed.
There is some criticism to the alleged standardization of the high school curriculum for the whole country to match the Vestibular agenda. As most types of academic evaluation, the vestibular suffers from the same limitations as a regular test; that is, factors such as stress
come into play. It also seems to favor candidates that come from a wealthier background, who had access to better and deeper education in private schools, as opposed to the comparatively poor public high school educational system, although many university boards claim that it doesn't matter which background the candidates have, since their Vestibular aims to select the best students based solely on their knowledge. To ease this problem, some universities such as the Federal University of Minas Gerais, provide a 10–15% bonus for students who received their middle and high education in public schools.
policy. This is also considered a step backwards in the sense of a politically independent university and in the concept of meritocracy
. In August 2005, at Universidade Federal do Paraná
, a student was granted by a federal court
the right to be admitted at the university because she had a better score on the Vestibular than several other freshmen that took advantage of their quotas.
, a non-mandatory national exam, as a stardard 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.
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:
Competitive examination
A competitive examination is an examination angwhere candidates are ranked according to their grades. If the examination is open for n positions, then the first n candidates in ranks pass, the others are rejected...
and is the primary and widespread system used by Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
to select their students. The Vestibular usually takes place from November to January, right before the start of school year in February or March, although certain universities hold it every semester. The exams often span several days, usually two, with different disciplines being tested each day.
Structure
Several Brazilian universities follow the FUVESTFUVEST
FUVEST is a Brazilian autonomous institution connected to the University of São Paulo responsible for its "vestibular" examinations. For that reason, USP's vestibular itself is usually called "Fuvest"...
(University of São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...
's entry exam) pattern, which is divided into two stages or "phases". The first stage consists of multiple choice questions, including subjects such as Portuguese Language
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Portuguese Literature
Portuguese literature
This is a survey of Portuguese literature.The Portuguese language was developed gradually from the Vulgar language spoken in the countries which formed part of the Roman Empire and, both in morphology and syntax, it represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of...
and Brazilian Literature
Brazilian literature
Brazilian literature is written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, even if prior to Brazil's independence from Portugal, in 1822...
; Math, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and Foreign Language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
. The answers are marked on an answer card, and they are graded afterwards by an automated optical reader
Optical reader
An optical reader is a device found within most computer scanners that captures visual information and translates the image into digital information the computer is capable of understanding and displaying....
. The best scoring candidates from the multiple-choice stage proceed to the second stage, which contains write-in questions about subjects related to the candidate's major. Prospective engineering majors for example are tested in Math, Physics and Chemistry, whereas prospective Law students are required to take exams in History, Geography and Philosophy. The Portuguese language exam, which also includes a student-written essay, must be taken by all candidates irrespective of their intended majors. The exams are graded by a board of professors and candidates for each major are then classified in descending order according to their overall score in the two stages of the Vestibular. The top scorers up to the maximum number of vacancies for each field of study are allowed to enroll in their intended majors and begin college.
In other universities, the Vestibular may include only one single-stage exam where the scores for each subject tested are adjusted by weights depending on the student's major of choice. Also, in a few universities like UNESP
Unesp
Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho is one of the six public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, with USP, UFABC, UNIFESP, UFSCar and UNICAMP. It's a part of the state’s higher education system.UNESP has a combined student body of almost 40,000 spread among its 23...
or UNICAMP, only write-in exams are used. Conversely, students seeking admission into some private colleges take multiple-choice exams only.
In some military engineering colleges such as ITA and IME
Instituto Militar de Engenharia
The Instituto Militar de Engenharia is an engineering university maintained by the Brazilian Army with Federal support. IME is the oldest and one of the best ranked engineering schools in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Education of that country...
, the Vestibular includes exams in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Portuguese and English only. Those exams are mostly write-in and demand more from the students when compared to ordinary vestibular exams of the same subjects by other universities, being heavily influenced by mathematics competitions questions. This is done in order to let the student focus on the subjects of the college's interest while preparing for the exams.
University candidates must choose their majors by the time they sign in for the vestibular, and they cannot change their choice except through a very bureaucratic process of internal transfers within the university. Some exceptions exist, such as Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
in some universities, where the engineering major is chosen only after a three or four semester period.
Throughout the last decades, there has always been a gap between the few vacancies offered and the overwhelmingly high and growing demand for high quality and tuition-free public universities. The competition goes as far as having more than 100 candidates per vacancy for the most sought-after careers, such as medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
Origin
The Vestibular was implanted primarily as a way to prevent nepotismNepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
or some other form of unfair or beneficial selection of candidates. It was considered by law the only authorized selection method until 1996, when the new Education Law was passed.
Criticism
While the Vestibular is generally considered to be a fair and unbiased system to select students, there are controversies.There is some criticism to the alleged standardization of the high school curriculum for the whole country to match the Vestibular agenda. As most types of academic evaluation, the vestibular suffers from the same limitations as a regular test; that is, factors such as stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
come into play. It also seems to favor candidates that come from a wealthier background, who had access to better and deeper education in private schools, as opposed to the comparatively poor public high school educational system, although many university boards claim that it doesn't matter which background the candidates have, since their Vestibular aims to select the best students based solely on their knowledge. To ease this problem, some universities such as the Federal University of Minas Gerais, provide a 10–15% bonus for students who received their middle and high education in public schools.
Quotas
Recently there have been discussions about racial and social quotas that are being systematically implemented by the government in public universities as part of an affirmative actionAffirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
policy. This is also considered a step backwards in the sense of a politically independent university and in the concept of meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
. In August 2005, at Universidade Federal do Paraná
Universidade Federal do Paraná
Federal University of Paraná is a university headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.Established on December 19, 1912 and initially named as Universidade do Paraná , the Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR is regarded as the oldest Brazilian university.In 1920, the federal government split...
, a student was granted by a federal court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
the right to be admitted at the university because she had a better score on the Vestibular than several other freshmen that took advantage of their quotas.
New ENEM (Novo ENEM)
The Ministry of Education of Brazil (MEC) proposed in 2009 that the universities should use the EnemEnem (exam)
ENEM is a non-mandatory Brazilian national exam, which evaluates high school education in Brazil. The test is utilized as a stardard university entrance qualification test...
, a non-mandatory national exam, as a stardard 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.
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.
See also
- AbiturAbiturAbitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
- BaccalauréatBaccalauréatThe baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
- Cram schoolCram schoolCram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities...
- Entrance examinationEntrance examinationAn entrance examination is an examination that many educational institutions use to select students for admission. These exams may be administered at any level of education, from primary to higher education, although they are more common at higher levels....
- Public contestPublic contestIn Brazil, public examinations are the most commonly used form of hiring public servants, including teachers, bureaucrats, diplomats, prosecutors, judges, etc...
- Brazil university rankings
- Universities and higher education in BrazilUniversities and higher education in BrazilBrazil adopts a mixed system of public and private funded universities. Usually public funded universities offer the best quality education, and they are 100% financed by the government...