Pencil, wallet, registration sheet “and my mom’s blessing.” That is all Javier García, 19, brought this Monday to the in-person UNAM exam. “They advised me to leave my cell phone, watch, and I won’t even get up to go to the bathroom. Don’t let them say I cheated,” he says. He and 43,000 other applicants are taking, over the next three days and for the second time in three months, the entrance exam to the country’s most coveted public university, the unprecedented control exam the institution had to apply after the failure of the online and remote test in which a large number of applicants committed fraud.
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The esplanade of the Palacio de los Deportes, a concert venue to the east of the capital, was transformed into a large classroom. At long tables, close to each other, young people sit in front of the computer or electronic tablet where they must answer 120 questions in a maximum of three hours. Surveillance is absolute: the device has no internet connection or access to any other program, and supervisors walk the aisles of seats monitoring the participants. Five minutes before starting, the present directors asked to sing a Goya, the university’s emblematic cheer.
Meanwhile, an army of dads, moms, cousins, siblings, and boyfriends guard the outside of the Palacio de los Deportes. “Your effort will always be worth it. We are proud of you,” Elizabeth’s family wrote on a banner. There are bouquets of flowers, signs, and words of encouragement mixed with the shouts of tamale, pencil, and sharpener vendors. The three hours that will define the future of the young people in the first shift of the day start at 9:00 a.m., but the Gamboa family arrived “a little early” at 6:30 from the State of Mexico. “It has been weeks of much anguish and anxiety for Brisa; we wanted to accompany her,” explains Carla. Her 21-year-old sister was selected for Psychology. A joy for the whole family. “Now she has to prove she earned that place honestly,” she laments.
The other side of the coin is those who see this exam as a second chance. Melanie Echeverría (Toluca, 19) scored 114 out of the 115 correct answers required for the medical surgeon program in the May test. “I got depressed, I felt like I let my family down. Then when I saw I could retake the exam, it was like a ray of sunshine,” she shares. Echeverría is among those called to retake the exam because they achieved the necessary score for their programs before the massive fraud pushed the scores to excellence.
The fiasco of the online test, which involved all kinds of tricks, from accordions to identity theft, cost the position of Secretary General Patricia Dávila, who resigned when the scandal broke. Javier de la Fuente took her place and addressed the 43,000 applicants from all over the country who must appear in Mexico City this Monday: “The university responded quickly, but we must apologize. Many young people who took the exam normally are affected by the stress and uncertainty of the new exam.” De la Fuente assures that the evaluation “was a very noble principle” to avoid travel to the capital.
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Some recognize that initiative. Héctor Escalante, who wants to study Chemistry at Ciudad Universitaria, leaves confident after two hours and 15 minutes in the exam. He assures that the first attempt “had many errors.” “I don’t know if anyone was monitoring besides the artificial intelligence,” he explains. The 23-year-old student compares UNAM’s experiment with that of the Metropolitan Autonomous University, which also administers the test remotely. “It has greater security, there is a person on a video call watching you. At UNAM it was good to try, but the demand is high and much more security is needed,” he shares. “In person, it’s impossible to cheat. There, those who studied, studied,” he says.
The control exam, the solution found by the committee of 16 experts to face the crisis that kept 158,000 people on edge, began last week in León (Guanajuato), Oaxaca, and Tijuana (Baja California). The average no-show rate was 30% and reached up to 50% in some venues. “It’s multifactorial,” assures De la Fuente. “It’s very common for applicants to apply in several places. If they stay in the universities of their state, they no longer show up,” he explains.
The first to finish the exam this Monday received applause from families waiting outside the Palacio. “Yes, you can, yes, you can,” the parents cheered. Pamela González, 18, says she is “confused” upon leaving: “I don’t understand anything. First, it was accepting that I didn’t get in, and now another exam.” The results will be published the last weekend of the month, just a few days before the start of the course, which has been delayed in this process. González assures that “the worst is yet to come.” Waiting.
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