The LUISS test has a feature that makes it different from almost all other Italian admission tests, and that every year catches very good students off guard: you can’t go back. You confirm an answer and that question is closed for ever, whether you were sure or guessed at random. Those who arrive thinking “I’ll do the easy ones first and then go back to the hard ones” — the strategy that works almost everywhere — find themselves in trouble at the LUISS test from the tenth question onwards.
In this guide I put what I use with my students preparing for Economics and Management, Economics and Business, PPE, Law or Political Science at LUISS: how the test is built, why being sequential changes everything, what to study area by area and how to plan the 75 minutes on the day.
How the LUISS test is built
From 2026 LUISS has unified access to its three-year and single-cycle courses into a single LUISS test: the same test for Economics and Management, Economics and Business, PPE, Law, Political Science and the other courses that require it as the main route of admission. It is taken online with proctoring (remote supervision) and consists of:
- 50 multiple-choice questions
- 75 minutes in total
- no division into sections with separate timing — it is a single timed block
LUISS does not publish an official breakdown of the topics. From the reconstruction of those who prepare for the test every year, the content covers logic (verbal and numerical), maths (algebra, functions, geometry, probability and combinatorics) and general knowledge. There is also an English version of the test, but it is a translation of the same paper, not a separate language section to be taken in addition.
The scoring: +1 for a correct answer, −0.25 for a wrong one, 0 for a skipped question. The total out of 50 is converted into a mark out of 100 (you divide by 50 and multiply by 100), and the minimum threshold to be admitted to the ranking is 60/100. For the most sought-after courses the score really needed to get in, according to unofficial but recurring data from those who have sat it, is somewhere between 70 and 85/100 — well above the minimum threshold.
The ranking is based only on the test score: your school-leaving grade doesn’t count. Those who have passed a Summer School or recognised Foundation programmes receive a bonus of up to +5 or +10 points in the ranking. There is also a route of admission without the test, through international certifications (SAT ≥ 1200, ACT ≥ 25 or IB ≥ 36): if you already have them, it is worth considering before setting up months of preparation.
The main sessions are in February, with a possible additional session in May if places remain, plus an Orientation Summer School programme for Year 4 students. The participation fee is €150 and the total number of places on the test is about 1,720.
Structure, dates and number of places can change from one year to the next. Before setting up your study plan, always check the updated official call on luiss.it: this guide gives you the picture, the call has the last word.
The rule that changes everything: no going back
This is where the most important part of the preparation is played out, and also the one that almost nobody trains. In most Italian tests (the TOLC included) you can scroll back and forth between questions, skip the hard ones and return to them calmly. In the LUISS test that doesn’t exist: one question at a time, and once you have confirmed your answer you can no longer change or review it.
The practical consequences are two, and they must be internalised before the day of the test, not during it:
- Every question has to be decided “on the spot”. You can’t count on coming back to it with a freer mind after finishing the others. The time you give a question is the time you have, full stop.
- Time has to be managed question by question, not by sections. With 75 minutes for 50 questions, the average is 90 seconds per question. Some need 20, others 4 minutes: the discipline lies in not being sucked into one hard question and sacrificing the three easy ones that come after.
The practical rule I give my students: if after 90 seconds you have no clear idea of how to solve the question, decide at once — not “I’ll think about it a bit longer” — whether to attempt a reasoned answer on the options you can eliminate, or to skip. With a penalty of −0.25 per mistake and 0 for a skip, skipping only makes sense if you can’t rule out any of the options; if you eliminate even just one out of four, answering has a positive expected value. But here, unlike a test where you can go back freely, the decision has to be made there, in those 90 seconds, because there is no “later” in which to review the question with a clearer head.
What to study by area
Logic is the part on which I invest the bulk of the preparation time, because it is the area with the highest margin of improvement in a short time: verbal logic (syllogisms, deductions, relations between statements) and numerical logic (sequences, proportions, problems with data). These are patterns that are recognised with training — after about a hundred questions done, the recurring types are spotted at a glance, and your speed of solving changes radically.
Maths requires consolidation rather than studying from scratch: basic algebra, functions and equations, geometry (plane and analytic), probability and combinatorics. For most Year 5 students these are topics already seen at school, and the work is to become fluent again in what has gone a bit rusty, not to learn new theory.
General knowledge is the area that yields least per hour of study: it has no defined, closed programme, so it is best treated as a steady income — reading, current affairs, a few general-knowledge quizzes in dead moments — rather than as a structured block of study. The real energies go on logic and maths.
To get your bearings on the maths part you will find material and support on the maths page; if you are also weighing up other economics tests, see the guides on Bocconi and on Cattolica’s TIEC: the three tests share a good part of the logic and maths programme, and preparing for one strengthens the others.
Exam strategy: decide your skip policy before sitting down
With a sequential test, the costliest mistake is not not knowing an answer: it is deciding on the spot what to do when you get stuck. Under pressure, without a rule already written in your head, you almost always end up insisting too long on one question or skipping out of fear, even when you could have eliminated two options out of four.
Before going into the test, decide in cold blood:
- The time threshold per question (90 seconds is the starting point, adjust it on your mock exams).
- The skipping rule: no option you can eliminate → skip; at least one eliminated → answer.
- The mental order: you can’t choose the order of the questions (they arrive as they arrive), but you can decide in advance at what pace you want to proceed in the first ten minutes, so as not to start either too slowly or too anxiously.
This policy has to be trained before the test, with mock exams that really replicate the sequential format — not with practice books where you can freely go back, which train the opposite reflex to the one you will need.
Realistic timelines
- 3 months before — the ideal window. Time to consolidate logic and maths calmly and to reach full sequential mock exams in the last weeks.
- 6 weeks before — still perfectly feasible, with a plan that concentrates most of the time on logic (the fastest margin of growth) and a targeted revision of maths.
- 2 weeks before — little time to learn new topics: you work on timed mock exams and on managing the 90 seconds per question, which on its own is worth several points out of 100.
Those who start in the last week arrive at the test without ever having tried the sequential format under pressure, and it is almost always there — not in the content — that the points are lost that make the difference between the minimum threshold and the score you really need for the course you want.
Which test for which university
A recap of the map of tests for economics, because this is where there is most confusion:
- Bocconi → Bocconi online test (or SAT/ACT as an alternative) — free mock exam
- Cattolica → TIEC, its own proprietary test: the TOLC-E is not needed — free mock exam
- LUISS → LUISS test (this guide) (or SAT/ACT/IB for direct admission) — free mock exam
- State universities (Statale, Bicocca, Bologna, Padova…) → TOLC-E from CISIA (the consortium that runs the TOLC tests): the comparison with Bocconi is in this guide
How we work in lessons
The first step I have anyone preparing for the LUISS test take is a free LUISS test mock exam in true sequential mode: one question at a time, with no possibility of going back, exactly as on the day of the test. You will find it here: free LUISS test mock exam. It is not an exercise like the others: it is the fastest way to find out whether your problem is one of content (you don’t know the logic or the maths) or of management (you know the material but the sequential format sends you into a tailspin) — and the two problems are cured in completely different ways.
From there we build a tailor-made plan: targeted consolidation on logic and maths where needed, and gradually more timed sequential mock exams, with question-by-question review to understand whether an error was one of knowledge, of time or of handling pressure. It is the same method I use for the TOLC, Bocconi and Cattolica, adapted to the particular nature of the LUISS test: here the sequential format is not a detail, it is the variable that decides more points than any extra revision does.
If the course you are interested in is Psychology or Political Science, the tests are different and have separate guides: TOLC-PSI and TOLC-SPS; for Economics at a state university, the guide is the one on the TOLC-E.
Want to understand where you are losing points?
If you are preparing for the LUISS test, the best starting point is the sequential mock exam: it tells you in 75 minutes where you really stand, not where you think you stand. From there we can build a concrete plan together — write to me for a free introductory call and we’ll organise it together, with single lessons or the 10-hour package (rates on the pricing page) for those who want a structured path through to February.
