{"id":53053,"date":"2021-09-08T10:23:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T09:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/?p=53053"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:32:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:32:40","slug":"university-access-exam-in-spain-pce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/blog\/university-access-exam-in-spain-pce\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Take the University Access Exam in Spain: PCE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to study at a Spanish university, you may need to take a <strong>university access exam in Spain (PCE)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The PCE stands for <em>Prueba de Competencia Especificas <\/em>or specific competency test. It&#8217;s not one big test but rather many small tests on specific subjects that you can choose from a-la-carte.<\/p>\n<p>The test can be used to improve your grades before applying to <a href=\"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/universities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">universities in Spain<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>It is not usually mandatory but different universities may require it. Even if the PCE is not a requirement at your university of choice, consider taking the test to raise your grades and chances of acceptance.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to get into a good Spanish university, take the university access exam in Spain (PCE) and make your grades as competitive as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Our college preparatory schools offer classes to study for the PCE, find them <a href=\"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/college-preparatory-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">all here!<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Who Needs to Take the University Access Exam in Spain (PCE)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To <strong>apply to a Spanish university<\/strong>, you need to prove that your courses were equivalent to the Spanish curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>Countries in the EU (and some others) have a reciprocity agreement which recognizes their school curriculum as equivalent to Spain\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re from a country outside of the EU, you\u2019ll need to prove that the courses you took are equal to the courses in Spain.<\/p>\n<p>The process of getting your curriculum recognized in Spain is called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/blog\/foreign-qualifications-in-spain-homologacion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">homologation<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>To homologate your transcript, send it to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uned.es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UNED<\/a>, or the National Distance Education University.<\/p>\n<p>Some universities require a different accreditation of transcripts, so double-check that the UNED accreditation will be accepted.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22600\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22600\" style=\"width: 847px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22600 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/PCE-exam-spain.jpg\" alt=\"university access exam in spain PCE\" width=\"847\" height=\"565\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22600\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As a university entrance exam, the PCE is pretty serious. Study, study, study!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>UNED is also responsible for the university access exam in Spain (PCE)!<\/p>\n<p>UNED has institutions in 13 countries, so you may be able to <strong>take the PCE<\/strong> before you leave for Spain.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever you&#8217;re from in the world, you can take the PCE to improve your grades before applying to university.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Taking the Specific Competency Exam in Spain<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>When it\u2019s finally time to <strong>take the university access exam in Spain<\/strong> (PCE), make sure to bring some official identification.<\/p>\n<p>You need to bring the confirmation of your application to the PCE, which contains a barcode to register your test.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re allowed to take tests on up to 6 subjects at a time. Depending on your university of choice, there may be limits on how many subjects you can to test in.<\/p>\n<p>UNED recommends taking 4 subjects for non-EU citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Some parts of the test must be answered in Spanish, so <a href=\"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/blog\/how-to-learn-spanish-fluently\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">get proficient in Spanish<\/a> before you sign up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to study at a Spanish university, you may need to take a university access exam in Spain (PCE). The PCE stands for Prueba de Competencia Especificas or specific competency test. It&#8217;s not one big test but rather many small tests on specific subjects that you can choose from a-la-carte. The test can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":53062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[1564,1707,1716,1745],"class_list":["post-53053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study-in-spain","tag-pce-spain","tag-study-abroad-in-spain","tag-study-in-spain","tag-university-access-exam-in-spain-pce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53067,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53053\/revisions\/53067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogoespana.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}