If, on the one hand, candidates dedicate themselves all year to studying to get a place at college, those who take part in preparing the test also have a long journey to prepare for the exam that will decide the future of many students. And technical knowledge is not enough: it is necessary to explore items that are attractive when formulating questions and be aware of current topics.
Responding to the main state selection, at the University of São Paulo (USP)Fuvest works with 30 drafters and 10 reviewers. “We also have internal employees who work on newsstands and proofreading. Everything to make it look like a Fuvest issue, with improved images, maps, graphs and tables”, says Gustavo Monaco, executive director of Fuvest.
On average, the panels are made up of three drafters (all USP professors), who are dedicated to each of the disciplines. In the case of Portuguese, as it involves more questions, there are four people. All panels meet inside the Fuvest building, in a separate room to prepare questions. “Not even Fuvest employees know who the teachers on the board are. We carry out other exams, in addition to the entrance exam”, says Monaco.
Between the first and last meeting it takes almost the entire year. The first stage and a first review take around two months. “The first meeting is to try to define the issues. Subsequently, new meetings are scheduled. They bring images, maps, graphs, tables, excerpts from an article, a book, a text that helps to elaborate the questions”, he observes.
Then the questions are handed over to the reviewer. “He comes to USP to assess whether the issue is good, but could improve, or whether the issue was already charged last year”, reveals Monaco. This opinion is returned to the drafters. In some issues, it is also possible for the panels to explore the same topic. “For example, that the History panel has worked on a topic that serves English.”
Thus, Fuvest reaches a scenario with 120 to 130 questions in September. Of this total, it is necessary to choose 90 from the first phase, in addition to those from the second phase. In this context, what is less current is eliminated.
Once the 90 questions are closed, there is the curation work. “We need to see what links we can make between the questions, so that the test tells a story”, says the executive director, citing the possibility of use in various disciplines. Still in October, this stage will be completed and the proofs will be printed.
Next month, the National High School Examination (Enem) will also take place, in practice the largest public entrance exam in the country. Its questions are prepared by experts, selected through a public call for employees of the National Bank of Items (BNI) , based on criteria of academic training, teaching experience and experience in large-scale educational evaluation.
According to Inep, the actions involve training employees, preparing, reviewing and pre-testing items, to measure difficulty. The test also goes through a careful linguistic review and is then diagrammed.
Private universities
In the case of Fundação Getulio Vargas, the preparation of the exam is carried out by a panel from each subject, and sometimes this panel is made up of professors from FGV itself, and other times not, depending on the subject. “Every panel has at least two writers, because the normal process is that one of the writers asks a question, or part of the questions, and the other reviews it independently”, says Paulo Cezar Carvalho, academic coordinator of the entrance exam at FGV in São Paulo , Rio and Brasília. There is also the Portuguese revision.
Furthermore, FGV has a critical reviewer, who is a generalist professor, who masters most of the subjects that make up the entrance exam. “Sometimes even bringing a different perspective from the subject specialist when formulating questions. And then there is my role, as academic coordinator, which, in addition to participating in the selection of panels, is to carry out the final review of the test”, says Carvalho.
All students take an objective test with 60 objective questions, in addition to the Essay. Each FGV school, in addition, chooses one or more specific discursive tests to complement the assessment. In general, the boards are made up of higher education teachers who have extensive contact, in some way, also with secondary education.
Internal and external
In the case of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), preparation is also a long process. “The institution works with panels based on areas of knowledge, made up of in-house and external professionals”, says professor Alexandra Geraldini, vice-rector of Undergraduate Studies.
The test consists of an essay, written in Portuguese, based on a single proposal, and an objective test consisting of 50 questions in multiple choice format, according to the distribution of areas adopted by the National Secondary Education Examination (Enem). There are around 20 professionals on the newsstands, with the exception of the editorial team, which brings together between 20 and 25 professionals.
“Experienced teachers in higher and secondary education participate, with extensive experience in preparing items for selection processes. In addition, there is a Portuguese language reviewer and also two who make a general assessment of the test, at least one being a pedagogue or psychopedagogue”, says professor Alexandra.
Between February and March of each year, there is a meeting with other universities to exchange information about the dates of the processes. Once the calendar is defined, administrative processes begin to be planned.
A similar process also takes place at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM), as reported by the coordinator of Selection Processes, Milton Pignatari Filho. “We have specific teams for each of the disciplines. In each of them, the formulation of questions follows a specific style. And a common point: seek critical reasoning in the search for resolutions.”
