Status on 7 October 2026: the 2027 Informação-Prova has not been published yet. This guide describes the 2026 exam, the most recent official reference, and will be updated when the 2027 document comes out.
What exam 639 is
Português is the three-year general-component subject of every curso científico-humanístico. Its national exam, code 639, is sat at the end of 12.º ano and is based on the Aprendizagens Essenciais of Português for 10.º, 11.º and 12.º ano.
It is the one exam all those students share: the Guia Geral de Exames 2026 lists it among the exams needed to finish secondary school, alongside two specific-component subjects (or one of them and Filosofia).
In 2026 the 1.ª fase sitting was on 16 June at 9:30 and the 2.ª fase on 16 July. The 2027 dates will be set in the exam calendar, not yet published.
What the paper looks like
| Feature | What the official documents say |
|---|---|
| Duration | 120 minutes, plus 30 minutes of tolerance |
| Marks | 200 points |
| Domains | Reading, Writing, Literary Education and Grammar |
| Item types | Selection items (e.g. multiple choice) and constructed-response items (short answers and one extended response) |
| Extended text | Genre, theme and length set in the question: 200 to 350 words (except a summary, which has its own rules) |
| Answers | On dedicated answer sheets, prepared for scanning |
In Literary Education the paper may use texts other than those studied in class: other texts by the same author, other excerpts of the same work, or texts by other authors in the same genre. In that case what counts most is interpreting the text given. Answers may call on knowledge of the works studied, to support an interpretation, relate texts or write an exposition.
From 2020 to 2026 each paper has items whose marks always count and a set of items of which only the best-scoring answers count. All of them should be answered. The Informação-Prova Geral gives 2025 as an example: each item was worth 13 points and the Grupo III text 44 — 30 points over three structure-and-content parameters and 14 for linguistic accuracy.
Which works come up
The Aprendizagens Essenciais list, for each year, the works and texts of Literary Education. The exam can draw on any of the three years.
| Year | Works and authors (Aprendizagens Essenciais) |
|---|---|
| 10.º | Galician-Portuguese lyric (cantigas de amigo, de amor, de escárnio e maldizer); Fernão Lopes, Crónica de D. João I; Gil Vicente, Farsa de Inês Pereira or Auto da Feira; Luís de Camões, Rimas and Os Lusíadas (the Poet’s reflections). |
| 11.º | Padre António Vieira, Sermão de Santo António; Almeida Garrett, Frei Luís de Sousa; Viagens na Minha Terra, «A Abóbada» or Amor de Perdição; Eça de Queirós, Os Maias or A Ilustre Casa de Ramires; Antero de Quental; Cesário Verde. |
| 12.º | Fernando Pessoa, orthonym and heteronyms (Caeiro, Reis, Campos) and Mensagem; one short story (Manuel da Fonseca, Maria Judite de Carvalho or Mário de Carvalho); contemporary Portuguese poets; José Saramago, Memorial do Convento or O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. |
In Grammar the Aprendizagens Essenciais include, among others: syntactic functions and clause classification, phonological processes and etymology, word formation, modality, deixis, cohesion and reported speech, and aspect (12.º ano).
How much it counts
For internal students on the cursos científico-humanísticos, the exam is part of the subject’s final mark:
CFD = (7.5 × CIF + 2.5 × CE) ÷ 10 — 75% internal mark and 25% exam.
Português as a university entrance exam
Português is one of the entrance exams (provas de ingresso) for higher education, and the exam that meets it is 639 (or 138, Português Língua Segunda, only for students with severe-to-profound deafness). As an entrance exam the exact points count, and each institution sets a minimum never below 95 out of 200. The Português Língua Não Materna exam (839) cannot be used as an entrance exam.
How to prepare
- Revise the works of all three years, not only 12.º: the exam can quote any of them, and even other texts by the same author.
- For each work, know the themes, characters and main stylistic devices, with one or two short quotations.
- Practise grammar on sentences from real texts: syntactic functions and clause classification lose many marks.
- Write 200-to-350-word opinion texts and mark them against the official parameters (structure, arguments, examples, accuracy).
- Work through past papers with their marking criteria and sit full papers in 120 minutes.
Common questions
Is the Português exam compulsory?
For students on the cursos científico-humanísticos, yes. The Guia Geral de Exames 2026 lists Português among the exams needed to finish secondary school.
How long is the Português exam?
120 minutes, plus 30 minutes of tolerance, according to the 2026 Informação-Prova.
How many words is the Grupo III text?
Between 200 and 350 words, unless the genre asked for is a summary, which has its own length rules.
Can texts I did not study in class come up?
Yes. The Informação-Prova allows other texts by the same author, other excerpts of the same work, or texts by other authors in the same genre.
Is the 2027 exam known yet?
Not yet. The 2027 Informação-Prova had not been published on 7 October 2026. The 2026 one came out in November 2025.
