The Architecture admission test (TEST ARCHED): structure and how to prepare

The TEST ARCHED is the national test for admission to Architecture and Building Engineering-Architecture degrees, which have limited places. CISIA delivers it, but the structure is set every year by a ministerial decree, so it can change from one cycle to the next. Below you will find the structure as CISIA writes it, what has been verified and what has not, and how to prepare each of the five sections, including the drawing one that many mistake for a test of manual talent.

What it is, who requires it and when it takes place

The reference decree for 2026/27 is Ministerial Decree no. 706 of 4 June 2026 (arrangements and contents of the admission tests for Architecture degrees), cited by the CISIA test page and by the call of the University of Trento for Building Engineering-Architecture. The text of the decree on the Ministry’s website does not open automatically: the structure below comes from the CISIA page and the Trento call, which reports it. (The Politecnico di Milano page prints the decree as «04.05.2026» in the text and «04-06-2026» in the link: I follow CISIA and Trento, 4 June.)

CISIA lists the universities that use it and publishes dates university by university: for 2026 they run from 23 July to 16 September (page read on 29 October 2026), with two tests in English, in Milan on 23 July and in Bari on 9 September (in Milan on 24 July the test was in Italian). All of them are past. The 2027 dates were not published, and the reconstructions you see around are not an official source: a reasonable guess is that the decree comes out in spring-summer as it did this year, but it is a guess. The call of the university you want to join is the only source for its dates.

One local addition worth knowing: in Milan the test is accompanied by a separate English test, the TENG, 30 multiple-choice questions in 15 minutes, which does not affect the score but assigns an English learning requirement to anyone answering fewer than 24 questions correctly (Polimi page 2026/27). Other universities have different rules.

The structure

From the CISIA «Structure and syllabus» page and the Trento call (Note 5), read on 29 October 2026:

Every test is different from student to student. Scoring: +1 per correct answer, −0.25 per wrong answer, 0 per blank, maximum 50. The number of options per question appears neither on the CISIA page nor in the call I read; in the site’s mock exam there are five.

Time is the point to read carefully. According to CISIA each section is timed separately: when time runs out you move on to the next, if you finish early you can proceed but you cannot use the leftover time elsewhere and you cannot go back. The decree, as the Trento call reports it, speaks of a maximum time of 100 minutes. The two are compatible: 5 sections × 20 minutes. What I have not verified is what a university does if it delivers the test on a platform other than CISIA’s: if that is your case, read in the call how time is organised, because it changes the strategy.

An example of what a local call says: at Trento the 2026/27 test was delivered from home with two devices (a computer with the CISIA client and a smartphone for supervision), with no books, notes, paper or calculators; the ranking was based only on the test result; in a tie, the scores in logic, reading comprehension, drawing and representation, physics and mathematics, knowledge and history prevailed in that order, then the more recent date of birth; anyone who answered no questions at all was not ranked. Other universities have their own rules: the ranking is local.

Time and negative marking, with the sums

With 20 minutes and 10 questions you have 2 minutes per question, but time does not move between sections. With $n$ options per question, a random answer is worth on average

With five options: random among five $E=0$; ruling out one for certain ($n=4$) $E=0,0625$; two ($n=3$) $E\approx 0,17$; three ($n=2$) $E=0,375$. Rule: answer if you can eliminate at least one option, otherwise leave it blank. For the general picture of totals with penalties see the guide to the TOLC score.

How to prepare, section by section

Reading comprehension

Ten questions in 20 minutes. The Politecnico di Milano (page «What the test ARCHED consists of», a.y. 2026/27) says the texts may be scientific essays, classic or contemporary narrative, or newspaper or magazine articles. The method is the same as the TOLC: read the questions first, then the text once, and answer only from what is written.

Knowledge acquired and History, including art history

The decree has an annex with the syllabus, which I could not open automatically: for its full text I have no verification. The Politecnico di Milano, on its 2026/27 page, describes the questions of this section in three groups: recognising the place and period represented or placing significant historical-cultural events, including architectural works and artistic currents; knowing the main national and international institutions; understanding phenomena of law, economics and citizenship. For non-EU candidates living abroad there may also be questions of international general culture. The method I suggest: build a timeline of the great periods with the works and movements you remember from school, and link each work to period, area and current; for institutions and citizenship the basics of civics are enough.

Logical reasoning

Here too you meet orderings, necessary and sufficient conditions, true-false puzzles. An example:

Three designers, Elena, Marco and Sara, each submitted a project; only one won. Elena says: «The winner is not Sara». Marco says: «It is Elena or it is Sara». Sara says: «It is Marco». Exactly one of the three statements is true. Who won?

Try each winner and count the true statements:

Only with Sara as winner is exactly one statement true: Sara won. The table costs twenty seconds and removes every doubt. More patterns in the guide logical reasoning: question types.

Drawing and representation

This is the section that frightens most people, and it should be read for what it is. For Polimi (same page, 2026/27) it assesses the ability to analyse graphs, drawings and renderings and knowledge of the basic notions of representation: plans, elevations, axonometries. They are multiple-choice questions: you do not have to draw, you have to read and reason about figures. The detailed national syllabus (annex to the decree) is not verified on my side. The kind of reasoning that trains you, in any case, is spatial visualisation and the use of scales. Two examples of the kind:

A cube of side 4 is painted on the outside and then cut into 64 unit cubes. How many cubes have exactly two painted faces?

Cubes with two painted faces sit on the edges, corners excluded. The cube has 12 edges and on each, minus the two corners, $4-2=2$ cubes remain:

Check: 8 corners (3 faces) + 24 (2 faces) + $6\cdot (4-2{)}^2=24$ (1 face) + $(4-2{)}^3=8$ (0 faces) make 64.

A room of 6 m by 4 m is drawn at a scale of 1:50. What are the measurements on the sheet?

Beware the trap: the area at scale 1:50 shrinks by $50^2=2500$ times, not by 50.

Physics and mathematics

Ten questions in 20 minutes, and in some calls the section decides an additional learning requirement (at Trento, under 3 points). For maths Polimi lists number sets and arithmetic, algebra, Euclidean geometry, basics of analytic geometry, probability and statistics, basic trigonometry; for physics basic mechanics (displacement, velocity, force, Newton’s laws, basics of statics), basic thermodynamics, basic electrostatics and electrodynamics (Coulomb’s law, Ohm’s law, capacitors, resistors). The level is high school. Two examples:

A square of side 10 cm has an inscribed circle. What is the area of the part of the square outside the circle?

The radius of the circle is 5 cm:

A stone falls from rest from 45 m. How long does it take to hit the ground (use $g=10m/{\mathrm{s}}^2$ and ignore air)?

For the basics of geometry and the rest, see the pages on physics and maths.

Mistakes that keep recurring

1. Thinking of it as a «drawing test». Of five sections only one is about drawing: the other four are comprehension, culture, logic and physics-maths.
2. Not training time by section. With 20 strict minutes and no going back, a 100-minute continuous mock exam does not resemble the test.
3. Leaving Physics and mathematics for last: in some calls it is there that the additional requirement is decided.
4. Answering everything. With −0.25 a reasoned blank pays.
5. Trusting a single website. Structure, timing and syllabus change every year with the decree: the source is the decree, then the call.

And in 2027?

The 2027 decree is not out and I have read no 2027/28 calls, so I do not take for granted that the structure stays this one: it is the 2026/27 one. When the decree comes out, the first thing to check is the number of sections and the time. The site’s mock exam follows the CISIA organisation in five sections of 20 minutes.

An eight-week plan

1. Week 1. A complete Architecture test practice exam, with timed sections. Note blanks and mistakes for each section and read how to read a mock exam result.
2. Weeks 2-4. Physics and mathematics in blocks, and one hour a week of logic.
3. Weeks 5-6. History, art history and comprehension: timeline, one passage a day.
4. Weeks 7-8. Drawing and spatial visualisation, then three complete mock exams reviewed question by question.

If you want an opinion on your starting point, you can book an introductory call. The overview of all the tests is on the admission tests page.

Sources

Structure and scoring: CISIA page «TEST ARCHED, Structure and syllabus» and «dates 2026», 2026/27 admission call of the University of Trento for Building Engineering-Architecture (single cycle), which reports Ministerial Decree no. 706 of 4 June 2026, and the Politecnico di Milano page «What the test ARCHED consists of and how to prepare» (a.y. 2026/27); pages read on 29 October 2026. Not verified: full text of the decree and national syllabus of each section (annex not accessible automatically: the content descriptions are Polimi’s), time organisation at universities that do not use the CISIA platform, number of options per question, 2027 dates and structure.