Find out how Enem tests are prepared and distributed

Over the next two Saturdays – November 5th and 12th – more than 3.9 million candidates will take the National High School Exam (Enem) tests across the country. The exam involves the participation of almost half a million people, including the processes of preparing, printing, storing, distributing and administering the tests.

The questions that make up the test are defined at the end of the first semester. It all starts with the publication of a notice for the selection of collaborators to produce the test items. The items, as the questions are called, are prepared according to the parameters of Enem and the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep).

After going through reviewers and experts, each question is tested in advance by a group of students and classified according to difficulty. Thus, it is possible to compose several Enem tests, with different themes, but with the same level of difficulty. The process is confidential and students do not know that they are answering possible Enem questions.

Approved items become part of the National Item Bank (BNI), which is a repository of questions that is available to Inep for use in future Enem tests. To access BNI, you must follow a security protocol. All employees and employees authorized to access items sign confidentiality and secrecy terms.

The Enem consists of a writing test and four tests with 45 objective questions each: languages, mathematics, humanities and natural sciences.

Printing and distribution

After choosing the questions, the test is sent to the printing company, which has a maximum security scheme. The layout is done by employees inside a safe room. The video test in pounds is recorded in a studio set up within the Safe Integrated Physical environment, located at Inep.

The distribution of tests to all capitals begins at the beginning of the fourth quarter, with an escort from the Federal Police or the Federal Highway Police. The evidence is sent to maximum security logistics warehouses and is kept under surveillance until the day of application.

The bags with the tests, already separated by room and place of application, are sealed at the printing plant and can only be opened after the gates close.