ENADE Ciências Contábeis common mistakes
ENADE Ciências Contábeis · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the ENADE multiple-choice items as simple recall and answering from a single memorized definition, without reading the whole statement and its four distractors to check which one actually satisfies the case described.
Candidates who prepared by memorizing isolated definitions expect items to ask 'what is X' and stop reading after recognizing a familiar keyword, so they pick the first option that echoes the textbook phrase rather than the one that fits the scenario.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed reading routine for every item: read the stem twice, underline the verb (identify, calculate, compare, justify), predict the answer before looking at the alternatives, then eliminate each distractor by naming the specific error it contains. Practice on 20 items per session and record which distractor trick caught you.
Skipping or under-investing in the discursive (open-ended) questions because they are perceived as subjective, leaving them blank or writing a single paragraph with no explicit answer, no accounting reasoning, and no conclusion.
Candidates fear being penalized for a wrong opinion and lack practice in the expected structure, so they spend their time on the objective items they find more predictable and treat the discursive part as a lottery.
What to do instead
Use a three-part template for every discursive answer: (1) a direct thesis sentence that answers the command verb, (2) two or three supporting arguments each tied to a technical concept or norm, (3) a closing sentence that restates the conclusion. Write timed practice answers of 15-20 lines and self-score against the command verb, concept accuracy, and coherence.
Ignoring the item's reference text and interpreting the question only from personal workplace experience, so the answer reflects a single company's practice rather than the conceptual or normative framework the item is testing.
Working students and professionals rely on routines learned on the job; when the item's supporting text describes a different context, they unconsciously answer about their own employer instead of the situation presented.
What to do instead
Before answering, explicitly state to yourself what the item's context is and whether the question refers to the described case or to a general concept. When a practice differs from theory, answer with the theoretical/normative criterion and treat your practice as a hypothesis to verify, not as the standard.
Managing time badly across the four-hour block, spending too long on a few hard objective items and then rushing or abandoning the discursive questions and the multiple-choice items near the end.
The exam mixes objective and discursive items in a single session and many candidates have never simulated the full duration, so they have no internal clock and no triage strategy for items they cannot resolve.
What to do instead
Do at least three full-length timed simulations under real conditions. Set checkpoints (for example, finish the objective block by a set minute) and apply a two-minute rule: if an item is not resolved, mark it, move on, and return only after all items have an initial answer. Never leave a discursive item blank.
Reading only the stem of a discursive question and starting to write immediately, without outlining the required concepts and the logical sequence, producing a disorganized text that mixes diagnosis, calculation and recommendation.
Time pressure and the habit of writing essays from school lead candidates to draft directly, and the resulting text repeats ideas, omits required steps, and loses points on organization even when the technical content is partly correct.
What to do instead
Spend three to five minutes on a written outline before drafting: list the command verb, the concepts to be cited, the data to be used, and the order of the paragraphs. Then write following the outline and reserve two minutes to check that every part of the command was addressed.
Answering accounting calculation items without showing the reasoning or the unit, and selecting an alternative that matches an intermediate result rather than the final one requested.
Items are built with distractors that correspond to common intermediate values (a subtotal, a value before tax, a monthly instead of annual figure); candidates stop calculating as soon as a number appears among the options.
What to do instead
Write the full calculation chain, label each intermediate value, and only then compare the final figure with the alternatives. Before choosing, re-read what the item asks for (period, unit, gross or net, before or after adjustment) and verify that your result answers exactly that.
Treating the specific professional-knowledge section as the whole exam and neglecting the general-education (formação geral) items on contemporary issues, interpretation and argumentation, which carry significant weight.
Candidates assume that only the discipline-specific part defines approval and do not practice reading long texts, interpreting data, or writing on social and environmental themes, so they lose easy points in the general section.
What to do instead
Allocate study time proportionally to the number of general-education items. Practice interpreting charts, tables and short articles, and rehearse discursive answers on contemporary themes using the same thesis-argument-conclusion structure. Review the exam's official weighting before building the study plan.
Underestimating the pedagogical component of the licenciatura exam, answering questions about classroom practice, assessment and curriculum as if they were purely theoretical content questions, with no reference to the teaching-learning process.
Graduates in teaching degrees often focus on mastering the subject matter and treat education disciplines as secondary, so they fail to connect content to didactic decisions and to the legal framework of basic education.
What to do instead
For every content topic, practice answering two questions: how would I teach this, and how would I assess whether it was learned? Study the national curriculum guidelines and assessment concepts (diagnostic, formative, summative) and link each to concrete classroom situations described in items.
On the licenciatura discursive items, describing a classroom activity or lesson plan without justifying the pedagogical choices or linking them to learning objectives and to the students' context.
Candidates are used to producing activity descriptions and believe that a detailed plan is enough, but the items require justification of method, expected outcomes and coherence with the proposed objective.
What to do instead
Structure the answer as objective, chosen strategy, justification of why that strategy fits the described students, and how learning will be verified. Explicitly name the pedagogical principle behind each choice and check that the plan could be executed by another teacher from your text alone.
In the medicine exam, jumping to a diagnosis or a single test from one striking finding and ignoring epidemiological context, severity signs and the need for initial stabilization before investigation.
Clinical cases are written with a leading finding that anchors attention; candidates with limited supervised practice prioritize diagnostic hypotheses over the sequence of conduct, and forget that items often ask for the next step or the most appropriate initial management.
What to do instead
For each clinical case, apply a fixed sequence before choosing: identify the syndrome, assess severity and stability, define immediate conduct, then consider diagnosis and specific treatment. Re-read the final question to see whether it asks for diagnosis, next step, or best initial management, and eliminate options that skip stabilization.