Questions, Answers and Pleas in Portuguese Exams during Seven Decades

Keeping in mind the central part national exams have been performing in the design and implementation of learning and curricula, the analysis of the evolution of the Physics and Chemistry national exams shows the dynamic implications between the exams (different contents and learning) and the curricula, in the realm of the curricular reforms that happened in Portugal.

The paper reports and provides examples of questions, answers and pleas in Portuguese exams from 1940 to 2010. As it is never too much to highlight, it is not possible to reflect on the exams focusing exclusively around the students and the technical concern of measuring their performance without keeping in mind the factors in play regarding learning, such as curriculum, Portuguese cultural characteristics, the organization of the School Community, and the educational legislation driven by several national and international historical factors.

This approach does not aim at showing a compilation of the negative moments of the reforms throughout those decades, but to show that nowadays our school system has a higher demanding level, both at the teaching level and at the curricular level, highlighting a higher level of competence in abstract thinking.