The new rules on the use of national final exams for secondary education as entrance exams were released today in Diário da República and will take effect next year, that is, on applications for the 2022-2023 academic year.

The National Commission for Access to Higher Education (CNAES) thus decided that the national secondary exams can be used as entrance exams for access to higher education “in the year in which it is carried out and in the following four years, without the need for repetition in the year in that the application for higher education is completed”.

However, in the 1st phase of the access competition, only national secondary education final exams carried out precisely in the 1st phase of exams in the year of application or in previous academic years can be used as entrance exams.

“For the purposes of applying for higher education, it is not allowed to carry out at the same stage of exams more than one national final exam of secondary education to satisfy the same entrance test. If this is the case, only the exam performed in the first place is considered valid”, adds the CNAES.

In the case of students who intend to repeat the tests, candidates can use the best of the classifications eventually obtained for the purpose of accessing higher education.

Once again, in these cases of improvement, exams performed in the 1st phase of that year or the last four can only be used to compete for the 1st phase.

"National secondary education final exams carried out in the 2nd phase of examinations cannot be used in the 1st phase of the competitions referred to in the previous number, either in the year of their completion or in the four subsequent years", he explains also the CNAES in the diploma published today in Diário da República.

The exception to this rule applies only in cases of students who could not take any exam in the 1st phase because it coincided with the date of another test, which they also took.

In these cases, they can compete for the 1st phase with an exam taken in the 2nd phase: “In each academic year, in the 1st phase of the application for enrollment and enrollment in higher education, final exams can be used as entrance exams national exams that have been carried out in the 2nd phase of exams by students who have taken an exam in the 1st phase, scheduled for the same day and time of the exam that they took in the 2nd phase”, states the document.

However, cases in which students took the exam in the 1st phase of the same year, “with the same code or different code” are not considered.