Can I use my ENEM score to apply to a university in the United States?

There is no program that delivers ENEM scores to colleges in the United States the way INEP does for Portuguese institutions through Enem Portugal. Colleges there publish their own requirements, so check each one on your list.

Do I have to take the SAT in English?

Yes. The whole test is in English, Math included, where the questions are written in English even when the math itself is simple. There is no Portuguese version.

How much does the SAT cost from Brazil?

College Board lists $68 for registration plus a $43 international fee, which is $111, with late registration adding $38 and a test center change costing $34. See https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/registration/international-testing/fees

Can I take the SAT on the same weekend as the ENEM in 2026?

Technically yes, and it puts two long exams into three days. INEP applies the 2026 ENEM on 8 and 15 November, and College Board lists an SAT date on 7 November 2026, the Saturday before. The next published date is 5 December 2026, after both ENEM Sundays.

Is the SAT easier than the ENEM?

They are built differently, so the comparison does not hold. The SAT is 98 questions in 2 hours and 14 minutes, adaptive by module, with a calculator allowed throughout Math. The ENEM is 180 objective questions plus an essay across two Sundays, running from 13h30 to 19h on the first day.

When do ENEM 2026 results come out?

INEP said the official answer keys for the objective tests would be published up to the 10th business day after the second day of application, and that individual results were expected around the middle of January 2027, on the participant's page of the INEP site.

Updated on 2026-09-20

SAT vs ENEM: what changes for a Brazilian student applying abroad

The ENEM opens doors in Brazil and, through agreements signed with INEP, in Portugal. The SAT is an admissions test for colleges in the United States. One does not replace the other, and in 2026 they land on the same weekend.

Two exams, two different jobs

The ENEM is the Brazilian federal exam run by INEP. INEP says its scores can be used for Sisu, ProUni and Fies, and can also certify that you completed secondary school. Source: https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/areas-de-atuacao/avaliacao-e-exames-educacionais/enem

The SAT is run by College Board and is read by colleges in the United States as one piece of an application, next to your transcript and your essays. It does not get you in by itself, and each college decides what weight it carries.

So the question is rarely SAT or ENEM. If you want a place in Brazil as a backup while you apply abroad, you sit the ENEM anyway. The problem is fitting both into one year.

What each test looks like on paper

The ENEM covers four areas of knowledge, languages and codes, human sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, for 180 objective questions in total, plus a dissertative argumentative essay. It is applied over two days. Source: INEP, https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/areas-de-atuacao/avaliacao-e-exames-educacionais/enem

The SAT has two sections. College Board publishes 54 questions in 64 minutes for Reading and Writing, in two modules of 32 minutes, and 44 questions in 70 minutes for Math, in two modules of 35 minutes. That is 98 questions and 2 hours and 14 minutes of testing, with a 10 minute break between the sections. Source: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/whats-on-the-test/structure

It is also adaptive by module. College Board spreads questions of every difficulty through the first module of each section, then uses how you did there to decide whether your second module comes out harder or easier. The total score runs from 400 to 1600, and each section is reported from 200 to 800, according to https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/scores/what-scores-mean

SAT Math by domain: Algebra 13 to 15 questions, Advanced Math 13 to 15.
Problem Solving and Data Analysis 5 to 7, Geometry and Trigonometry 5 to 7. Source: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/whats-on-the-test/math/overview

The language gap is bigger than it looks

The SAT is taken entirely in English, Math included, where the wording of a problem can cost you more time than the arithmetic. If your English handles a series but not a dense paragraph about a research finding, close that gap first.

The reading is also not the kind you are used to. College Board keeps each Reading and Writing passage somewhere between 25 and 150 words, and hangs exactly one multiple choice question on each passage or pair of passages. Source: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/whats-on-the-test/reading-writing. The ENEM asks you to hold a long text in your head, while the SAT asks you to be exact about a very short one.

On the ENEM side, your foreign language choice is not something you settle on test day. INEP says your registration confirmation card records the foreign language you picked along with the place where you sit the exam, so the choice between English and Spanish is made months earlier, at registration. Source: https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/noticias/enem/enem-faltam-60-dias-para-a-aplicacao-da-prova

Time in the chair, and what you may take in

For the 2026 ENEM, INEP published the schedule in Brasília time: gates open at 12h and close at 13h, the exam runs from 13h30 to 19h on the first Sunday and ends at 18h30 on the second. You need the original of an official photo ID and a black ballpoint pen in a transparent barrel, and electronic devices go switched off into a sealed envelope. Source: https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/noticias/enem/enem-faltam-60-dias-para-a-aplicacao-da-prova

The SAT is the opposite kind of day. It is digital, taken in College Board's Bluebook app, and over in 2 hours and 14 minutes plus the break. A calculator is allowed for the whole Math section, and College Board lets you choose between an approved handheld model of your own and the Desmos calculator that Bluebook puts on the screen. Source: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/what-to-bring-do/calculator-policy

Train for that difference. ENEM is an endurance problem, so do long blocks. The SAT is a pacing problem inside short modules, so do small sets against a timer.

What it costs

For a student testing outside the United States, College Board lists a registration fee of $68 plus an international fee of $43, which comes to $111. Late registration adds $38 and changing your test center costs $34. You also get 4 score reports at no cost, as long as you order them within 9 days of the test date. Source: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/registration/international-testing/fees

The ENEM fee and the rules for the fee waiver are set once a year, in the official notice that INEP publishes on gov.br, the edital. Read that notice rather than a blog, because the waiver deadlines fall months before the exam and that is the part students miss. INEP also reported that, for the 2026 edition, students finishing secondary school in the public network were registered automatically, so check your data instead of assuming you are out.

The November 2026 collision

INEP confirmed that the 2026 ENEM is applied on 8 and 15 November. College Board's published weekend test dates include 7 November 2026, with a registration deadline of 23 October 2026, and 5 December 2026, with a deadline of 20 November 2026. Sources: https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/noticias/enem/enem-faltam-60-dias-para-a-aplicacao-da-prova and https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat/dates-deadlines

Read those dates together and the problem is plain: the November SAT falls on the Saturday right before the first day of the ENEM. Two hours and 14 minutes in English on Saturday, then five and a half hours in Portuguese on Sunday, is a choice most people should not make.

December is the calmer option for anyone sitting the 2026 ENEM, since it comes after both Sundays. Check your college deadlines first, because a December score arrives late for some early applications.

SAT weekend dates published for 2026: 22 August, 12 September, 3 October, 7 November, 5 December.
SAT weekend dates published for 2027: 6 March, 1 May, 5 June.
ENEM 2026: 8 and 15 November.

How to plan a year with both

The overlap is smaller than people hope, but it is not zero. Algebra, functions, proportion and data reading show up in both, so that work pays twice. English reading pays twice as well, on the SAT and in the ENEM foreign language block if English is your choice.

The rest is separate training. The ENEM essay is a genre with its own scoring, and SAT practice never touches it. The SAT modules reward speed on short precise questions, which ENEM practice does not build.

Pick your SAT date first, then work backwards from its registration deadline, since that date cannot be moved for free.
Keep ENEM essay practice weekly and separate. One essay a week beats five in the last month.
Do SAT sets against a timer in blocks of about 30 minutes, matching the real module length.
Do a few full length ENEM simulations in the afternoon, so your energy curve matches 13h30 to 19h.
Track wrong answers by topic, not by score. A score tells you nothing about what to study tomorrow.

Where an ENEM score already travels

If Portugal is in your plan, the ENEM may already be enough. INEP runs a set of interinstitutional agreements, called Enem Portugal, that lets Portuguese universities, polytechnic institutes and higher schools consult the scores of Brazilian candidates. INEP states that each institution defines its own rules and weights for using the scores, that no funding from the Brazilian government is involved, and that each signed term lasts five years. Source: https://www.gov.br/inep/pt-br/areas-de-atuacao/avaliacao-e-exames-educacionais/enem/enem-portugal

INEP keeps the list of institutions with a current agreement, and the validity period of each, on that same page. Use it instead of a list from social media, then open the institution's own admissions page, because an agreement with INEP is not an open route into the course you want.

For the United States there is no equivalent arrangement. Colleges there set their own testing requirements and change them, so check the admissions page of every college on your list.