Why 58,783 UNAM Aspirants Are Facing a Second Exam

Some applicants to the National Autonomous University of Mexico say they cannot schedule appointments for the control exam ordered after the university's first fully online entrance exam produced statistically atypical results and possible use of artificial intelligence. The control exam is scheduled to run from Aug. 12 to 19.

UNAM has called 58,783 aspirants to sit the exam, but only in Mexico City, León, Oaxaca and Tijuana. By Sunday, the university said 43,619 aspirants, or 74.3 percent of those summoned, had secured a date, venue and time. That still left more than 15,000 people without an appointment two days before the window opened.

Students and families described being sent from office to office without a solution. One Medicine applicant who said she scored 104 correct answers reported that she had visited multiple university offices and sent emails but still had no appointment. Her father said the family had already rented an apartment in Mexico City after she was selected and now faces additional travel costs. Other aspirants said they were assigned to exam sites in states they had left after moving to the capital.

Protesters demanded that the control exam not cancel the original selection results, carrying signs that read 'Respect my place' and 'Respect my right to education'.

Advertisement

The Cost of UNAM's AI-Integrity Response Falls on Families

UNAM's dilemma: restoring exam credibility without punishing selected students

The university is trying to verify results after detecting possible AI-assisted cheating, but the control exam has created a new fairness problem. Students and their families argue that applicants who were already selected should not lose their places because of a process error by UNAM. That demand is hard to reconcile with the purpose of the control exam, which is to distinguish valid scores from abnormal ones.

The financial and personal cost borne by families

Many selected applicants made relocation decisions before the control exam was announced. The father of one Medicine applicant said the family had rented an apartment in Mexico City, and other cases cited by protesters include students from Oaxaca and Jalisco who moved to the capital but were then assigned to Oaxaca, León or Tijuana. The result is that UNAM's integrity response is being paid for by families in rent, food and travel costs.

What the scheduling gap reveals

UNAM's own Sunday count showed that 74.3 percent of aspirants had appointments, meaning 15,164 still needed to be assigned. With only four exam locations for a national applicant pool, the constraint appears to be administrative capacity as much as exam security. The case shows how moving high-stakes admissions online can create an integrity problem that then becomes a logistics and access problem when the university tries to correct it.

What Aspirants and UNAM Can Do Before the Aug. 12–19 Window

For affected aspirants and families:

Advertisement
  • If you still do not have an appointment, keep a written record of every email, office visit and the date of each contact. UNAM's Sunday statement means 15,164 people still needed an assignment before the Aug. 12–19 window closes.
  • If you were assigned to Oaxaca, León or Tijuana after relocating to Mexico City, request a venue change in writing and bring proof of address, because protesters say the current system does not reflect where applicants now live.
  • Do not discard your original admission result or any UNAM message about your score. The central demand is that the control exam should not erase the original selection.
  • If your appointment date falls after the exam window, as one applicant reported, use in-person visits to university offices rather than waiting only for email replies.

For UNAM: publish a daily, site-level count of remaining appointments. Your last update left 15,164 unbooked, and the four-city format is the main bottleneck for families who have already moved.