Elderly man takes the Enem and wants to study mechanical engineering to fulfill his old dream: ‘Everything is possible’ | Here Comes Enem 2023

This Sunday, the first day of tests for the National High School Exam, Enem 2023, will take place. According to Inep, which conducts the exam, there are 9,475 people aged 60 or over who will take the test across Brazil. And one of these people is the pedagogue Luiz Antônio Bandeira, 60 years old, taking the test to settle accounts with his past.

He entered the mechanical engineering course in mid-1984 at UFPB, on the campus that existed in Campina Grande. But, due to family problems, he had to put his dream aside.

“My father got sick, and I started running out of chairs. I failed because I missed everything, and in the end there was time for someone to complete it, and they canceled my enrollment”, says the pedagogue.

60-year-old candidate will take the Enem in 2023

Luiz even tried to resume the course afterwards and reuse the subjects already studied, but he ran into bureaucracy at the MEC and, to this day, he has not been able to do so. He then passed a degree in pedagogy at a private university in the capital, where he graduated in 1999, and even worked as a teacher.

But today, he seeks to revive an old dream: “We are left with that expectation, that anxiety. I always liked the mechanical engineering course, this is a dream. But anything is possible.”

On the eve of the test, anxiety always increases. But, for those who have been preparing all year, the important thing is to take a deep breath. For literature professor Wilson Silveira, everyone has a different method to relax, but it is essential to arrive prepared to take the exam.

“For those students who will revise until the last minute, revise, with a cool head, go over what you feel is still a little insecure”, he reports.

Despite continuing to revise, according to the teacher, students should avoid exaggerations. And of course, arrive early to avoid being overwhelmed.

“You already know the test location, you know what time they will be open, make a schedule, make a plan, and arrive early to avoid unforeseen events”, he concludes.

Even without much recent practice in his studies, Luiz counted on the help of Lá Vem o Enem: “Although I’m not very focused on my studies, I’ve been following Lá Vem o Enem, and it’s made a lot of things clearer”.

According to data from Inep, more than 124 thousand people of different ages signed up to take the exam in the 55 municipalities in Paraíba that will administer the test.