In this article we present a synthesis of research regarding university entrance exams of Spanish as a foreign language, available in some universities from the Southeast region of Brazil. According to theoretical conceptions about the process of textual comprehension (KATO, 1999; KLEIMAN, 2004; SOLÉ, 1998) and considering reading comprehension assumptions in official Brazilian high school documents, we analyzed 23 exams integrating our collected material. We verified, among other observations, that although most test questions were connected with the text, many of them assessed only lexical knowledge and the mastery of grammatical rules which reduces, in some way, the teaching and learning of these two aspects. In addition, we note the fact that there is a gap - sometimes insurmontable - between legal documents which guide and regulate high school and university entrance exams in a foreign language.
University entrance exams; Spanish as a foreign language; reading comprehension