Schools with better test results have external evaluation very close to internal classifications, with differences below a value in 21 establishments.
© Global Images
30/10/2026
by
Lusa
Nschools with higher grades in exams, external evaluation mirrors the performance of students throughout the year and in many the difference for the grade attributed by teachers does not reach a value.
For thousands of 11th and 12th graders, national high school exams mark the end of a cycle and many expect to get a score close to the internal rating, but it is not always easy to achieve that goal.
Still, last year, 21 schools stood out among 567 public and private (with available data) due to the proximity between the average in exams and internal notes, with a difference less than one value.
At the Grande Colégio Universal, in Porto, the average of national exams – the highest in the general ranking prepared by Lusa – was the almost perfect mirror of the ratings attributed by teachers throughout the year.
With the average of the final internal classifications in the 16.89 values (on a scale from zero to 20), the difference for the average in the external evaluation was only 0.04 values and, in this school, the students achieved an even more “rare” achievement: overcoming their performance throughout the course, reaching an average of 16.93 values.
In a context where exams tend to pull grades down against continuous evaluation, in addition to the Great Universal College, only two other schools achieved better results in the tests.
At the Bartolomeu Dias College in Loures, the difference between the average of the exam and the internal score was 0.14 values, and at the College of St. Thomas in Lisbon, the students exceeded the classification attributed by the teachers by 0.57 values.
Like the Porto college, these two private schools are also among the best placed in the general ranking of Lusa, which ordered the 570 public and private schools with at least 100 tests performed according to the best averages.
Looking at the list of 21 schools with differences below a value between the average of the exams and the internal average, it is concluded that it is precisely in schools with better results in the exams that external evaluation best reflects the performance of students throughout the course.
They are all private, 19 of these schools are among the top 30 averages in the high school exams held in the summer of 2025, including eight of the schools in the top 10 of the ranking.
On the contrary, in 79 schools the lag exceeded the four values, with the majority (59%) being among the worst classified, with negative averages in the national exams.
At the bottom of the table is the Portuguese School of Guinea-Bissau, where the students went to the test with an average of 13.95 values, but had only 6.66 values in the tests performed (less 7.28 values).
In similar cases, the gap between external evaluation and continuous evaluation coincides with poor performance in the tests, such as in the secondary schools of Baixa da Bath (Moita), Odivelas, Gil Vicente (Lisboa), José Cardoso Pires (Loures), Jaime Cortesão (Coimbra), Professor António da Natividade (Mesão Frio), the Royal College of Portugal and the Portuguese School of Lubango (Angola), all of the 10 lowest averages.
Compared to colleges, the difference between internal and national grades tends to be greater in public schools.
While in most public schools (68%) the grades given by teachers exceeded at least three test scores, in the case of private students the scenario is inverse and 73% had a difference below this value.
On the other hand, the data provided by the Ministry of Education also allow us to realize that among schools, only 2.22 values separate the internal average from the average of the exams, a greater discrepancy in the universe of public schools, where the difference rises to 3.16 values.
Table of the 10 best and 10 worst in the difference between the average of internal and average grades of students in national examinations
District – School – Average – Exam (Value) – Average CIF Dif
Lisbon College of St. Thomas 15.79511111 15.2300885 0.565022616
Lisbon Bartholomew College Days 15.25 15.10465116 0.145348837
Porto Grande Colégio Universal 16,93448276 16,88944724 0.045035522
Port Efanor College 16,32011494 16,53333333 -0,213218391
Braga Colégio D. Diogo de Sousa 15.86436031 16,29793978 -0.433579465
Lisbon College Manuel Bernardes 14,31306413 14,89261745 -0.579553317
Lisbon Modern College 15.31128776 15.90337079 -0.592083028
Lisbon Salesians of Lisbon – Colégio Oficinas de São José 15.69917864 16,2948886 -0.595709953
Lisbon College of São João de Brito 14.79642105 15.45868946 -0.66268406
Lisbon Academy of Music of Santa Cecília 16.03391304 16.70526316 -0.671350114
Setúbal Escola Básica e Secundária de Santo António, Barreiro 9,417622951 14,4502924 -5.032669447
Setúbal Secundária da Baixa da Bathtub, Vale da Amoreira, Moita 7,086470588 12,38461538 -5,298144796
Foreign Portuguese School of Cape Verde – CELP 9,354054054 14,73333333 -5,379279279
Lisbon Secondary School Fonseca Benevides, Lisbon 9,176956522 14,61904762 -5,442091097
Lisbon Marquis Secondary School in Pombal, Lisbon 9,033898305 14,5 -5,466101695
Leiria College Queen D. Leonor 9.5880597 15.12903226 -5.540226288
Lisbon Royal College of Portugal 8,727067669 14,37288136 -5,645813687
Braga Didaxis – Riba de Ave 11,06618705 17,32258065 -6,256393595
Vila Real Escola Básica e Secundária Professor António da Natividade, Mesão Frio 7.741584158 14,57377049 -6.83218633
Foreign Portuguese School of Guinea-Bissau 6,661983471 13,94690265 -7,284919184