EXANI-II

Overview

EXANI-II (Examen Nacional de Ingreso a la Educación Superior II) is Mexico's national undergraduate university admission exam, designed and administered by CENEVAL (Centro Nacional de Evaluación para la Educación Superior). Hundreds of Mexican public and private universities and technical institutes use it as part of their own admission process, each setting its own cut-off score and weighting the result alongside other requirements such as a prior academic record or an interview. EXANI-II is one of a family of CENEVAL entrance exams by education level: EXANI-I is the separate exam for admission to upper-secondary school (bachillerato), and EXANI-III is the separate exam for admission to postgraduate study. This file covers EXANI-II only.

Who can apply

EXANI-II is aimed at students who have finished, or are about to finish, upper-secondary education (bachillerato) and want to start an undergraduate (licenciatura) or university-level technical (TSU) programme. Applicants register for a specific sitting through the university or institution they are applying to — CENEVAL does not accept individual registrations directly from the public. Each institution publishes its own convocatoria stating the application windows it will use, its own eligibility and document requirements (such as a bachillerato certificate or proof of final-year enrolment), and which EXANI-II sitting its applicants must register for.

Exam pattern

EXANI-II has a core section common to every applicant plus specific-knowledge modules chosen by the institution for the programme applied to.

In total the exam has 168 items, of which 138 count toward the scored result (reading, writing and maths plus the two specific modules); the English and socio-emotional sections are diagnostic feedback for the applicant and the institution rather than part of the admission score. The exact specific modules required depend entirely on the programme and institution, so applicants should confirm which modules their chosen university has selected before studying.

Marking and results

EXANI-II does not report a raw count of correct answers. Results are given as an ICNE (Índice CENEVAL), a scaled score CENEVAL designed to run from 700 to 1300 with a national average close to 1000. The report includes an overall ICNE, a breakdown by section/module, and a percentile showing what share of applicants in that sitting scored lower. There is no single national pass mark — each university decides its own admission threshold and how heavily it weights the EXANI-II result against other factors (academic record, interview, specific-programme requirements), so the same ICNE score can mean admission at one institution and not at another.

Important dates

CENEVAL runs EXANI-II registration and testing in recurring national windows through the year, which individual universities then schedule their own convocatoria around. For 2026, reported national windows are:

Each university chooses which of these sittings its own admission cycle uses, and may set a narrower registration deadline than CENEVAL's national window. Always check the specific test date and deadline on the admissions page of the university applied to, since it can differ from the general national calendar above.

Fees

For the 2026 cycle, secondary sources report a regular EXANI-II registration fee of around $580 MXN, with a higher late-registration fee of around$780 MXN, plus a smaller additional charge (roughly $180–250 MXN each) for any extra diagnostic module beyond the two specific-knowledge modules already included. Reported figures vary between sources and some universities bundle the EXANI-II fee into their own application fee, so treat these as indicative only and confirm the exact amount on the specific university's own admission convocatoria.

How to apply

1. Choose the university or programme to apply to and read its own admission convocatoria for the cycle, since this sets the exact deadlines, documents and EXANI-II sitting an applicant must use.

2. Register and pay through the process the university describes; this is also how the EXANI-II booking is made with CENEVAL — there is no separate, direct public registration with CENEVAL outside an institution's own process.

3. Receive a test date, time and venue (or an at-home/remote modality where the institution offers it) from the university or CENEVAL platform used for that convocatoria.

4. Bring the required identification and registration confirmation to the sitting on the assigned date.

After the exam

Results (the ICNE score, section breakdown and percentile) are released on the timeline the university's own convocatoria states, typically some weeks after the test date, and are sent to the institution the applicant registered through. Each university then applies its own admission rules — a minimum ICNE, a ranked list by score, or a combination with other criteria such as prior grades or an interview — to decide who is admitted. Score reports from a given sitting are commonly accepted by the same or other participating institutions for a limited period afterward, but the exact validity window is set by each institution, not by a single CENEVAL-wide rule.

Preparation tips

• Confirm with the target university which two specific-knowledge modules it has selected before studying, since the subject modules differ by programme and institution.

• Practise reading comprehension, indirect writing and mathematical reasoning specifically, since these three sections make up most of the scored result and apply to every applicant regardless of programme.

• Treat the English and socio-emotional sections as useful diagnostic practice rather than score-boosting priorities, since they are not part of the scored ICNE result.

• Review official CENEVAL study guides for the specific modules relevant to the target programme rather than generic third-party material, since module content is written and defined by CENEVAL itself.

FAQs