Responding to Online Entrance Exam Cheating at UNAM

Host Alex Usher speaks with Alma Maldonado-Maldonado, an education researcher at CINESTAV and a member of the independent commission that investigated UNAM’s 2026 entrance exam, about the cheating scandal that followed the university’s first fully online undergraduate admissions test.

They discuss how unusual patterns in the exam results raised concerns about widespread cheating, the various ways students may have circumvented the online testing system, and the challenges of determining individual responsibility when the integrity of the exam as a whole has been called into question.

Alma Maldonado-Maldonado also explains the commission’s recommendation for a partial retest, the protests and consequences that followed, and what the episode reveals about the challenges universities face as admissions testing moves online.