Exam season
How the world celebratesEvery country here runs a national test that decides university places, but how tightly that decision is compressed varies enormously. China squeezes it into two days, June 7 and 8. Brazil does the opposite, spreading it across two Sundays a week apart in November. India goes further still, dispersing subject papers across nearly two months. Japan and Taiwan run a two-stage system: one national test, then each university's own. The United States is the only place with no national entrance exam at all. The same question — how an eighteen-year-old should be measured — gets seven different answers.
Quick answers
- When is it?
- Brazil · November 8, 2026–November 15, 2026; Japan · January 16, 2027–January 17, 2027; Taiwan · January 22, 2027–January 24, 2027; India · February 17, 2027–April 10, 2027; Indonesia · April 21, 2027–April 30, 2027; China · June 7, 2027–June 8, 2027
- How do places mark it?
- United States; Brazil · Enem (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio) · 十一月的兩個星期日，相隔一週; Japan · 大学入学共通テスト · 一月十三日以降の最初の土曜・日曜の二日間; Taiwan · 學科能力測驗（學測） · 每年一月下旬，連續三日；日期由大考中心考試簡章公告; India · सीबीएसई बोर्ड परीक्षा (Senior School Certificate Examination) · 二月中旬至四月上旬，逐科分散施測；日期由 CBSE 的 date sheet 公告; Indonesia · UTBK-SNBT · 四月下旬，單一梯次電腦化施測；日期由 SNPMB 每年公告; China · 普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（高考）
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How the world celebrates
- November 8, 2026– November 15, 2026Local date十一月的兩個星期日，相隔一週
BrazilEnem (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio)
Brazil's Enem, the National High School Examination, is run by Inep under the Ministry of Education across two Sundays a week apart: November 8 and November 15 in 2026. The first day covers languages, humanities and the essay; the second covers natural sciences and mathematics. Enem scores feed the SiSU placement system for federal and state universities and also govern access to ProUni scholarships and Fies student loans, so it functions as an entrance exam and a social policy gateway at once. Splitting the exam across two Sundays a week apart reduces the single-day load in a country of great distances and uneven transport — the opposite design choice to compressing a nation into the same two days.
- January 16, 2027– January 17, 2027Local date一月十三日以降の最初の土曜・日曜の二日間
Japan大学入学共通テスト
Japan's Common Test for University Admissions is run by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations, on a rule rather than a fixed date: the first Saturday and Sunday on or after January 13. For the 2027 cycle that falls on January 16–17, with make-up sittings on January 23–24. The Common Test is followed by each university's own examination; national and public universities split these into early and late schedules. So Japan is two-stage like Taiwan, but arranged differently: the second stage is held by individual universities in February and March, and candidates for national and public universities file their choices after their Common Test scores are known — scores first, then choose, the reverse of Taiwan's apply-then-interview order.
- January 22, 2027– January 24, 2027Local date每年一月下旬，連續三日；日期由大考中心考試簡章公告
Taiwan學科能力測驗（學測）
Taiwan's first stage is the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT), run by the College Entrance Examination Center over three consecutive days in late January; the brochure for the 116th academic year sets it at January 22–24, 2027. The GSAT is positioned as an ability test rather than the whole verdict: it determines application thresholds and which departments are open to a candidate, while admission still depends on each university's second-stage screening, which includes portfolio review and interviews. So January is not the end point for Taiwanese candidates but a narrowing of the field; the real sorting happens in the spring application and interview season, and for those who miss out, in July's Advanced Subjects Test.
- February 17, 2027– April 10, 2027Local dateEstimated date二月中旬至四月上旬，逐科分散施測；日期由 CBSE 的 date sheet 公告
Indiaसीबीएसई बोर्ड परीक्षा (Senior School Certificate Examination)
India's Central Board of Secondary Education runs the Senior School Certificate Examination for Class XII in the opposite manner to most of the others: not compressed into a day or two but dispersed subject by subject across nearly two months. The 2026 schedule ran from February 17 to April 10, with one or several papers on a given day. India also has separate national professional entrance exams — JEE for engineering, NEET for medicine — conducted by the NTA on their own calendar. So an Indian candidate faces not one great examination but a stretch of weeks in which any day may carry a paper, followed by a second round of professional tests. The pressure is shaped as a long plateau rather than a spike.
- April 21, 2027– April 30, 2027Local dateEstimated date四月下旬，單一梯次電腦化施測；日期由 SNPMB 每年公告
IndonesiaUTBK-SNBT
Indonesia's national selection test is the UTBK-SNBT, run by SNPMB, the national admissions committee, as a computer-based test whose results feed the SNBT route into state universities. The 2026 sitting was held in a single wave in late April, with registration from late March to early April and results in late May. Indonesia also has SNBP, a route with no test at all, based on school grades and the school's own standing, running earlier in the year. So the Indonesian structure runs two tracks in parallel — recommendation on record, and the common test — and candidates can try the first before committing to the second, unlike China's single road or Taiwan's two-stage relay.
- June 7, 2027– June 8, 2027Local dateEstimated date
China普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（高考）
China's gaokao is the most concentrated of the seven. The Ministry of Education's 2026 admissions circular sets the national sitting for June 7 and 8, a date fixed since 2003 that does not move with the day of the week. What is distinctive is not only its brevity but that it is very nearly the sole gateway: the score determines which universities and majors a candidate may apply to, and institutions do not generally run their own entrance exams. During the exam cities reorganise around it — horns banned near test centres, construction halted, dedicated traffic lanes, and in some places shifted working hours to keep the school run clear. That scale of collective accommodation has no parallel in the other six.
- July 10, 2027– July 11, 2027Local date每年七月中旬，連續兩日；日期由大考中心考試簡章公告
Taiwan分科測驗
The Advanced Subjects Test is Taiwan's second stage, two consecutive days in mid-July — July 10–11, 2027 for the 116th academic year. It mainly serves two groups: candidates who did not get the department they wanted through application, and those who planned to go through the placement route from the start. Unlike the GSAT's ability-test framing, this one tests subject depth and its scores feed directly into placement. Taiwan therefore has two peaks a year, January and July, with the application and interview season from March to May in between. That "two major exams in one year" structure is unusual among the seven places compared here.
- Not observed hereLocal dateNot on the official list
United States
The United States has no national university entrance examination. The SAT and ACT are run by private organisations — the College Board and ACT Inc. — not by government, and sitting them is not universally required; admission is decided institution by institution, weighing transcripts, activities, recommendations and essays, and since 2020 a large number of universities have gone test-optional, so even whether a standardised score is looked at is the university's own choice. The closest thing at federal level is NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card; but it is a sample survey used to track achievement trends nationally and by state, and it produces no individual scores at all — a student cannot receive one or use one. High-school graduation requirements, and whether any exit examination exists, are matters for each state. So there is no shared exam season in the United States: the measuring of an eighteen-year-old is dispersed across three years of school record and the separate judgement of each institution.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.