Important
The COMIPEMS exam is no longer held. President Claudia Sheinbaum announced its end on 31 January 2025, and COMIPEMS was dissolved on 3 February 2025; the last COMIPEMS exam was the 2024 one. Places in public upper secondary schools in Mexico City and the surrounding State of Mexico are now allocated through ECOEMS, where most schools admit students without an exam and only UNAM and IPN still set their own online exam. Prepare for the ECOEMS process, not COMIPEMS.
Overview
COMIPEMS (Comisión Metropolitana de Instituciones Públicas de Educación Media Superior) was a commission of public upper secondary institutions in the Mexico City metropolitan area. It was set up in 1995 and ran its first single admission exam in 1996, so that students applying to many different public high schools took one test and went through one allocation process.
Its member systems included UNAM (its ENP preparatory schools and CCH colleges), IPN, Colegio de Bachilleres, DGETI, Conalep, the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEM) and others, with about 458 schools taking part. Official COMIPEMS pages are no longer online, so the details below come from news reports and describe the process as it was in its final years.
Exam pattern
| Feature | Detail (2024) |
|---|---|
| Questions | 128 multiple-choice questions on basic skills and school subject knowledge |
| Time | 3 hours |
| Answer sheet | Marked by optical reader; each question had one correct answer, and marking more than one option voided that question |
| 2024 exam dates | 15, 16, 22 and 23 June 2024 |
| 2024 results | 9 August 2024 |
How places were allocated
Applicants listed the schools they wanted in order of preference when they registered.
After the exam, all applicants were ranked from the highest to the lowest score.
Starting from the top score, each applicant was placed in the highest-ranked school on their list that still had places.
Applicants whose chosen schools were all full were marked CDO (con derecho a otra opción) and could choose from schools with places left.
UNAM and IPN schools also required a minimum secondary school average of 7.0. Cut-off scores depended on demand: in 2024, UNAM schools ranged from 87 correct answers (CCH Naucalpan) to 113 (Preparatoria 6 "Antonio Caso").
What replaced it
For 2025 the government replaced the exam with a registration platform called "Mi derecho, mi lugar": applicants ranked schools from 18 March to 15 April 2025 and needed only a secondary school certificate, while UNAM and IPN kept their own selection. The 2026 process is called ECOEMS. In 2026, applicants registered from 17 March to 14 April 2026 and chose one of three routes:
Direct access only: 5 to 10 schools that admit without an exam, such as Colegio de Bachilleres, Conalep, IEMS, DGETI and UAEMex.
Exam only: up to five UNAM and up to five IPN options, with an online exam held from 18 to 22 May 2026.
Mixed: a combination of both.
Final 2026 results were due on 18 August 2026.
Is the COMIPEMS exam still held?
No. It ended in 2025, and the last COMIPEMS exam was in June 2024. Upper secondary places in the Mexico City area are now allocated through ECOEMS, with an exam only for UNAM and IPN schools.
Do UNAM and IPN still have an entrance exam?
Yes. Under ECOEMS, applicants who want an UNAM or IPN school take an online exam set by those institutions. Other public schools in the process admit students without an exam.