If you are planning to immigrate to Portugal by purchasing property with children who are about to enter high school, it is essential to understand the Portuguese university entrance examination system to avoid any disruption to their studies. Unlike our national college entrance examination policy, where a decade of hard work is decided in two days, the Portuguese education system begins calculating average grades from the first year of high school. Each academic year in Portugal consists of three terms. At the end of the first term, an average grade is calculated based on the student's written exam results, daily assignments, performance, and learning attitude. The second term follows the same procedure, and the final average grade of the first term is added to calculate the average for the second term. The third term is calculated similarly by adding the final grade of the second term to determine the average. This average grade becomes the student's grade for the first year of high school. For the first term of the second year of high school, the previous year's grade is added to calculate the term's average, and this continues until the end of the third year of high school, with each term calculated in this manner. The final grade at the end of the third year of high school serves as the student's cumulative academic record when applying to universities.
The university entrance exam is a national standardized test. The final score is composed of both the national exam result and the cumulative academic record. If a subject is a mandatory requirement for the major you are applying to, the national exam score accounts for 50% of the total grade, and the cumulative academic record accounts for 50%. If it is not a mandatory subject, the national exam score accounts for 30% of the total grade, while the cumulative academic record accounts for 70%. Students have two opportunities to take the exam each year. If a candidate is dissatisfied with their first exam result, they may register for the second exam, and the better of the two scores will be used. If a candidate is dissatisfied with their score in a subject after both attempts, they may choose to retake that subject the following year. All national exam scores are valid for two years. If a student has not previously studied a particular course and therefore has no cumulative academic record, their score will be based 100% on their performance in the university entrance exam.
