This study analyzed English language tests administered in Brazil as part of a university entrance examination, focusing on the authenticity of its tests of second language reading comprehension, the concept of reading as an interactive process between reader and text, a proficiency-based view of language instruction, and the psychometric properties of a good test. Two reading tests that explicitly favor authenticity and proficiency are analyzed in two sections. The first concentrates on the types of questions in both tests and the language skill levels that are tapped by each question, according to American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines. The second part is a reliability study, in which the consistency of scores is statistically analyzed to determine the overall quality of the tests. The reliability test is also performed to verify the hypothesis that a shorter test is less reliable than a longer one. (Contains 25 references.) (Author/MSE)