Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (; ), shortened as Enem () is a non-mandatory, standardized Brazilian national exam, which evaluates high school students in Brazil. The ENEM is the most important exam of this kind in Brazil, with more than 8.6 million registered candidates in 2016. It is the second largest in the world after China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination. After 2009 its importance for students who want to attend college has increased, since the exam has been used both as an admission test for enrollment in 23 federal universities and 26 educational institutes, as well as for certification for a high school degree. The test is also used by people desiring to gain points in the Universidade para Todos Program (or ProUni), a federal scholarship program. Date and time The ENEM is held in early November, with a small number of students taking the test in early December. The test starts at the same time across Brazil, with the starting time being based in Federal District. This results in the ENEM starting at four different times according to the local time zones, ranging from 10:30 am in the state of Acre to 1:30 pm in the Federal District and states of the South and Southeast regions. The test Until 2008, the exam consisted of two parts: a 63 question multiple-choice test on various subjects (Portuguese, History, Geography, Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology) and a composition. Since 2009, the exam has been composed of 180 multiple-choice questions, equally divided into four areas of knowledge: languages, codes and related technologies (plus a written essay); human sciences and related technologies; natural sciences and related technologies; and mathematics and its technologies. Due to the length of the test, it is applied in two consecutive sundays, the first lasting 330 minutes, and the second lasting 300. Even though its purpose is to be a national evaluation exam, students can use their scores to be admitted to a university, though not every university accepts it as the only admission exam. Usually private institutions, such as PUC-Rio, a major private Brazilian university, accept Enem as an admission exam. Others, such as University of São Paulo and Faculdade Cásper Líbero use the student's score as supplement to their admission credentials, depending on the student's performance. Since 2009, most of Brazil's federal universities have used ENEM as part of their admission exams, either as the entirety of