O que Explica o Desempenho do Brasil no PISA 2015?

Abstract This paper aims to explain the low performance of Brazil in PISA 2015, exploring innovations in the organization of the exam and introducing the effect of a break amidst an exam. We show that Brazilians have a performance decline throughout the exam and propose an alternative measure to the decay from a discontinuity in scoring chance between the break. Decay and discontinuity are plausible measures for differences in non-cognitive abilities. We argue that decay may be the result of students spending too much time on initial questions and not reaching the latter. Despite poor performance in non-cognitive indicators, Brazilian performance is mainly explained by the difficulty in initial questions, highlighting a disadvantage in cognitive abilities in relation to other countries.