Portugal announces 2026 National Exam rules and schedule

The Instituto Nacional de Avaliação Educativa (IAVE) announced that the 2026 Portuguese National Exams will use new answer booklets organized into specific zones. Any answer placed on the wrong sheet or outside its designated area will be scored zero, including strict rules for multiple‑choice items, construction tasks, and continuation sheets. Certain subjects such as Design and Descriptive Geometry retain specialized paper formats.

The exam calendar has been fixed in two main phases: the first from 16 to 26 June and the second from 16 to 22 July 2026, with results published on 14 July and 5 August respectively. University admission applications open in late July and run through early September, with provisional results expected around 23 August. The Directorate‑General for Higher Education (DGES) notes that dates may be adjusted in subsequent official releases.