ICFES examination

ICFES examination

Type	High school exit examination
Administrator	ICFES, Ministry of Education
Skills tested	Critical reading, mathematics, social studies, science, English proficiency
Purpose	Admission to undergraduate programs of universities
Year started	1966; 58 years ago (1966)
Duration	9 hours, two 4 1/2 hour sessions
Score range	0-500; each subject scores on scale of 0-100
Offered	March and August
Regions	Colombia
Languages	Spanish
Annual number of test takers	670,000 high school graduates in the second semester of 2019[1]
Prerequisites	Must be in senior year or have a high school diploma.
Used by	Private and public universities offering undergraduate programs in Colombia
Website	www.icfes.gov.co

The ICFES examination, or Saber 11, is a high school exit examination administered annually in grade 11 in Colombian high schools.^[2] The exam is standardized, similar to the SAT and ACT examinations taken by high school students in the United States. The purpose of the exam is to evaluate students' aptitude in five subjects: critical reading, mathematics, social studies, science, and English. Each exam question has four multiple-choice answers, except for the English section which provides between three and eight possible answers for each question.

Although the ICFES provides several tests for different academic purposes, the Saber 11 is nationally recognized as the most important test because it evaluates students' academic readiness for admission into institutions of higher learning.^[3]