The TOLC-I is the test that opens the doors to engineering degree courses at most Italian universities. Two important exceptions to know straight away: the Politecnico di Milano uses a test of its own (the TOL) but accepts the TOLC-I score on conversion, while the Politecnico di Torino uses only its own TIL — there the TOLC-I doesn’t count. For all the others (Statale, Bicocca, Bologna, Padova, and dozens of universities) the TOLC-I is the standard entry route. It is not an impossible test, but it rewards those who arrive prepared in terms of strategy, not just content: every year I see students who are brilliant at maths score less than less well-prepared students, simply because they didn’t manage time or guessed at random at the wrong points.
In this guide I put everything I use with my students: how the test is built, how much time you really need, where to start, what to study in what order and how to manage the 100 minutes on the day.
Before going on, try the free TOLC-I mock exam: correct answer straight away, no registration.
How the TOLC-I is built
The test is run by the CISIA consortium (the body that organises the TOLC tests for Italian universities), is taken at the computer (on site or from home with remote supervision) and is made up of four sections that count towards the score:
- Maths — 20 questions, 50 minutes
- Logic — 10 questions, 20 minutes
- Verbal comprehension — 10 questions, 20 minutes
- Sciences — 10 questions on basic physics and chemistry, 20 minutes
There is then an English section (30 questions, 15 minutes) that does not count towards the main score: it is used by universities to see whether you need a language catch-up course, and in some cases it enters the admission requirements.
The scoring works like this: +1 for each correct answer, 0 if you leave it blank, −0.25 for each wrong answer. Maximum 50 points on the sections that count.
The CISIA structure and syllabus can change from one year to the next. Before setting up your plan, download the official syllabus for the current year from the CISIA website and compare it with what you read here: five minutes that save you from studying topics outside the programme.
A practical note that is worth points: the TOLC-I can be retaken once a month (in different months) and almost all universities consider the best score among the valid attempts within the deadline of the call. The first attempt is not a one-shot: it is a diagnosis. If you can still book two sessions, do it.
The first thing to note, and the one from which the whole strategy derives: maths is 40% of the questions and 45% of the time. It is not one section among four, it is the test.
How much time you need
It depends on your starting point, but these are the realistic timelines I see working:
- 4 months before — the ideal situation. One or two lessons a week, 30-45 minutes of daily practice, a full mock exam every two weeks.
- 2 months before — still amply feasible. You need denser sessions and clear priorities: you work only on the chapters where you lose the most points per hour of study.
- 3 weeks before — you can raise the score by 5-10 points compared with a cold mock exam, rarely more. In that case the goal is not to learn new things: it is to stop losing points through haste and distraction.
What doesn’t work is starting seven days before. The TOLC-I is prepared in 2-4 months, and those who start in the last week usually reproduce at the test exactly the score of the first mock exam.
The first step: the cold mock exam
Before studying anything, I have everyone take a complete timed mock exam. No revision, no preparation. You can take it right now, free and with no registration, with the site’s TOLC-I mock exam: structure and scoring identical to the CISIA test: at the end you see the correct answer to each question, and the guided step-by-step solution unlocks with your first lesson. It seems counterintuitive to start from the test, but it serves three things that no other exercise gives:
- Understanding where you really are, not where you think you are.
- Identifying the chapters to tackle first — the ones where you recover the most points per hour of study, which are almost never the ones you expect.
- Measuring time. Very often the problem is not theory: it is not finishing.
After the mock exam we compare the answers one by one, and above all we separate the answers that were right through reasoning from those that were right through luck. They are two different categories: the second ones become mistakes at the next test.
What to study in maths
It is the section that decides the score. The areas to master:
- Algebra — equations, inequalities, absolute values, systems
- Analytic geometry — lines, parabolas, circles, distances
- Trigonometry — fundamental relations, trigonometric equations and inequalities
- Logarithms and exponentials — equations and inequalities
- Euclidean geometry — triangles, similarity, areas and volumes
- Basic statistics and probability
No calculus: derivatives and integrals are not in the TOLC-I syllabus. It is good news above all for those coming from a technical school.
The areas where my students go wrong most, measured on mock exams:
- Inequalities with absolute value — they have to be split into cases, and most mistakes are on the signs.
- Trigonometry — double-angle and half-angle formulas, and equations with mixed arguments.
- Probability — the distinction between independent and dependent events.
If you arrive solid on these three topics, you have already moved the score more than any general revision would.
Sciences, logic and comprehension: how much to invest
In sciences the programme is broad but the depth required is low: a quick, targeted revision is better, not studying chemistry as if it were the state exam (the final school-leaving exam, the maturità). Knowing the basic theory well solves most of the questions; on the rest, don’t dig in.
Logic is underestimated by almost everyone (“it’s easy anyway”) and that is where trivial points are lost. It has recurring patterns — syllogisms, number sequences, kinship problems, deductions with conditionals — and the best way to prepare is to do 200-300 questions taken from real past TOLC tests: after the first fifty you recognise the types at a glance. The six types that come back, each with a worked example, are in Logical reasoning in the TOLC: question types with worked examples.
For verbal comprehension: read the passage twice, underline the key passages, then answer. The questions are almost always decided on nuances (“the author claims” vs “the author hypothesises”). Don’t interpret: answer with what the text says, not with what you think.
The number one setup mistake: too many subjects in parallel
I see it every year: students who in every session alternate maths, physics, chemistry and logic. Result: they never go deep on anything and after a month they are slightly ahead everywhere and solid nowhere.
It works much better to block two weeks on a single macro-topic — only trigonometry, say — reach real mastery, and then move on while keeping the topic in maintenance with two exercises now and then.
Time strategy (where points are won)
Studying the content and arriving at the test without a time strategy is the most common way of throwing away points you would have had.
In maths, 50 minutes for 20 questions is two and a half minutes each — but some are solved in thirty seconds and others eat up five minutes. The rule I give: if at the first step a question blocks you for more than 90 seconds, you flag it and move on. You come back to it later, with a clear head and the easy questions already banked.
Logic and comprehension have generous time, but that is where concentration drops: it is better to tackle them while you are still “warm” from the exercises.
When it is worth guessing
The −0.25 penalty changes the calculation, and it is worth doing once and for all.
Every question has five options. If you have eliminated two and guess among the remaining three, the expected value is positive:
If instead all five are still in play, the expectation is exactly zero — like leaving it blank, but with more variance:
Put differently: eliminate at least a couple of options and answer; if you can’t eliminate any, leave it blank. Answering at random “because you never know” gains you nothing on average: it only adds risk.
The last two weeks
Here everything changes: no new theory. Only timed mock exams and error analysis.
The goal is not to learn new topics — there is no time for them to settle — but to stop losing points through haste and distraction, which in my students’ mock exams account for 30-40% of total errors. Every mock exam has to be reviewed question by question, and every error classified: I didn’t know it, I knew it but got the calculation wrong, I didn’t read the question properly. The three categories are cured in completely different ways.
The most common preparation mistakes
- Studying only from the school textbook — the TOLC has a format of its own, you train on its questions.
- Skipping timed mock exams — without a timer any preparation is incomplete.
- Not reviewing errors — a question got wrong and not understood will be redone identically at the test.
- Putting off the first mock exam — it is the starting point, not the final exam: taking it early and badly is exactly the point.
The day of the test
The TOLC is taken at the computer, on site or in TOLC@CASA mode. The rules are strict: no paper of your own, a non-programmable calculator only where provided for, time managed automatically by the system — when the section runs out, it runs out.
Arrive calmly, avoid studying the same morning and sleep well the night before. They sound like trivial tips and yet, on the score, the difference can be measured.
Do you want a plan built on your weak points
If you are preparing for the TOLC-I and want to understand where you are really losing points, the first step is that cold mock exam. That is where my TOLC-I preparation path starts: in 90 minutes I work out which chapters need strengthening and which you are already fine on, and the plan is built on that — not on a standard programme that is the same for everyone.
For the section that weighs the most there is a separate post, TOLC-I maths: topics and worked exercises; on how the score is calculated and when to guess, TOLC score: how it is calculated; to choose your session, When it is worth taking the TOLC.
You will find the full picture of the other tests on the admission tests page or on the packages. If you prefer to exchange a few words first, write to me on WhatsApp or via the contact form: I’ll reply the same day.
