The Vestibular usually takes place from November to January, right before the start of school year in February or March, although certain universities hold it every semester.
In some universities, the Vestibular may include only a single-stage exam where the scores for each subject tested are adjusted by weights depending on the student's course choice.
Another example is Mackenzie, considered one of the best private universities in the country: its Vestibular consists of 60 multiple choice questions and a student-written essay.
In some military engineering colleges such as ITA and IME, the Vestibular includes exams in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Portuguese and English only.
In the other hand, colleges with a humanities focused curriculum, such as ESPM, only include Portuguese, English, History, Geography, Math and culture.
While the Vestibular is generally considered to be a fair and unbiased system to select students due to the standardized nature of the tests, there are a few controversies surrounding it.
claim that it doesn't matter which background the candidates have, since their Vestibular aims to select the best students based solely on their knowledge.
There is also the alternative of taking classes at cram schools called cursinhos (a Brazilian word that usually means "Vestibular course").
The proposal's main objective is to democratize access to higher education, opportunities for federal jobs, academic mobility and induce the restructuring of the curricula of high school.