first day of National high school entrance exam (Enem) 2025 took place this Sunday the 9th and featured social and cultural themes. The Language, Code and Technology, and Human Sciences tests included questions discussing linguistic diversity, black representation, Greek mythology, and aesthetic pressures on women.
The essay topic he was “Perspectives on aging in Brazilian society”As reported, Ministry of Education (MEC). More than 4.8 million students have registered for this edition, which will be held next Sunday the 16th.
aesthetic pressure and expression
Among the most talked-about questions in the language test were those dealing with aesthetic pressures on women, citing comments about actress Margot Robbie and Brazilian Paola Oliveira.
The test also highlighted the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity with questions about the use of the word “Candica” in different regions of Brazil. “This topic, by its very nature, has the potential to arouse interest in students,” said Arturo Chion, a language teacher at the Anglo course.
He said the exam maintained its character of discussing social issues and assessing the diversity of the Brazilian-Portuguese population.
Another item exploring the artist’s work Dalton Paulawill be displayed in Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) Works depicting black people. “Paula’s paintings depict black people with names, giving them protagonists and identities, in contrast to previous representations that omit them or depict them in generic ways,” Chion said.
The language test included a question that compared the 12 labors of Hercules from Greek mythology to the reality of modern Brazilian workers who must juggle multiple activities to survive. “This analogy, which compares the difficulties faced by the main character with the socio-economic situation of many Brazilians, can sensitize students to social issues,” the professor added.
Chiong also emphasized that the difficulty level was as expected. “The Portuguese section included 11 questions that investigated oral and non-oral texts, with an emphasis on the chronicle genre. It also covered symbolism, features of Romanticism, and the use of sonnets,” he assessed.
“The themes proposed in this edition were relevant and up-to-date, encompassing issues of gender, ethnic prejudice and mental health, aspects of great importance for modern youth,” he concluded.
Humanities were prominent in history and sociology
In the human sciences, text interpretation was recognized as the dominant test, while history and sociology presented more demanding questions.
“If you look at the humanities tests, they’re very interesting, but they’re also very vulnerable,” said Rafael Capa, an education adviser at Colegio Andrews. “There were literally some questions that were much more specific to a language test than a humanities test, much more suited to a complete interpretation of the text. Some were by Paulinho da Viola, and others were by Clarice Lispector, whose design was more structured for languages.”
Still, he says, history once again demanded the content of the course. “We needed a really good foundation. In fact, there were some questions that students might think were ‘gotchas’, but they’re not. I would highlight one about Heturio Vargas and Carlos Lacerda,” he said.
Capa also highlighted the emergence of classic themes such as good navigation. “Additionally, you’ve had themes of great navigation emerge without appearing to be great navigation, or writers who tend to have superficial views that people shouldn’t have. Adam Smith, for example, talks about empathy, right? So that was stronger evidence in the field of history.”
Philosophy tests, he said, maintained a tradition of relating classical thinkers to current dilemmas. “Classical thinkers went on to bring some modern parallels and always presented evidence that was highly dialogic,” he observed.
Geography had “a heavy emphasis on physical geography, with very technical and good questions asked,” and sociology was the subject with “the highest number of questions compared to the rest of the year,” Kapa added.
The writing proposal isPerspectives on aging in Brazilian society“, Guided candidates to discuss topics such as quality of life, public policy, and age discrimination.. The second day of the Enem test will be next Sunday, on the 16th with questions from Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
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