It is the end of September 2026: between October and November several universities open autumn TOLC sessions for the remaining places, and those who book now sit the test in four to eight weeks. For anyone in Year 5 of high school aiming at Political Science, it is the right moment for a first diagnostic attempt, before the winter-spring window (February-May 2027) on which the 2027/28 enrolment is really decided — the calls of the individual universities come out between October 2026 and January 2027. The exact dates are set by each university on its own calendar, within the windows published by CISIA at cisiaonline.it.
The TOLC-SPS is the test used by several universities for access to the courses in the area of political and social sciences — political science, social work, international relations, sociology, depending on the case: always check on the call for your course which TOLC is required, because not all universities in this area adopt it in the same way. Compared with the TOLC-SU (text comprehension on 30 questions out of 50, almost no maths), the TOLC-SPS has a different layout: three sections of almost identical weight, and a real mathematical reasoning section. It is the most common mistake of those coming from a humanities path and preparing as if it were the TOLC-SU: here maths is not marginal.
How the test is built
The TOLC-SPS, run by CISIA (the consortium that organises the TOLC tests for Italian universities), is taken TOLC@CASA (online, with remote supervision) or in person, depending on the university’s availability. You book from the reserved area of cisiaonline.it. Three subject sections:
| Section | Questions | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Reading comprehension | 10 | 30 |
| Knowledge acquired in your studies | 15 | 30 |
| Reasoning and mathematical language | 15 | 30 |
| Subject total | 40 | 90 |
There is then an English section common to all TOLC tests — 30 questions in 15 minutes — which does not count towards the subject score and has no penalty: the university uses it to see whether you will need a language catch-up course.
Scoring on the three sections that count: +1 correct answer, 0 skipped, −0.25 wrong. The test costs €35 per session, non-refundable (2026 figure). It can be retaken no more than once per calendar month. Whether the best score among attempts or only the last one counts, and for how long a score remains valid, is decided by the call of the individual course — not a CISIA rule that is the same for everyone: check it before planning how many times to retake the test.
The three sections weigh almost the same: 10, 15, 15. There is no section that “counts more” to be studied first at the expense of the others — the right strategy spreads study over all three, it doesn’t concentrate everything on text comprehension as you would for the TOLC-SU.
Reading comprehension
Ten questions on a passage (or several short passages), the same logic as all CISIA tests: the correct answer is the one the text says, not the one that is true in general. First read the question, then the passage, so you already know what to look for. The most frequent questions ask for the author’s thesis, the meaning of a term in the specific context of the passage (not the dictionary one), or what can be deduced without adding anything of your own. The classic distractor is a plausible, agreeable statement that the passage nevertheless does not support: if you can’t find the line that confirms it, it is not the answer.
Knowledge acquired in your studies
Fifteen questions, the only section where “studying more” in the traditional sense really helps, but with a precise method: here there is no point in revising “all of history” or “all of current affairs”, because the programme is broad and there is no closed list of topics that always come up. The method that works is to build a solid, cross-cutting base on three axes — contemporary history (the great turning points of the twentieth century and the processes of European integration), civic education and the structure of the State (the Constitution, the powers of the State, how institutions work), basic political and economic geography (European Union, international organisations) — and to keep up with the news of the last few weeks by reading regularly, not by catching everything up at the last minute. There is no shortcut of “questions that always come up”: anyone selling you one is making it up.
Reasoning and mathematical language
Fifteen questions, and this is the section that surprises most those coming from a high school with few hours of maths (or from a path where maths was never central). It is not calculus or advanced trigonometry: it is percentages, proportions, ratios, reading tables and graphs, simple equations and inequalities, a little quantitative logic applied to data (statistics, averages, percentage changes). It is “service” maths, designed for those who will have to read data and statistics during their degree, not to select future engineers. With a method — read the data carefully, identify the operation required, check the order of magnitude of the result — you catch up in a few weeks even starting from fragile foundations.
An example of the type of question that recurs: a table with the percentage distribution of the vote by age group in two consecutive elections, and the question asks which group had the greatest percentage change. You don’t need a complex formula: you need to read the table calmly, calculate the difference (not the ratio, if the question asks for “percentage points” and not “relative change” — they are two different things and the wording of the question always specifies) and compare the values obtained. Time is almost always lost through haste in reading the data, not through lack of theory.
Three worked questions
1. Reading comprehension. Passage: “Over the last three decades, voter turnout in established democracies has fallen almost steadily, but this decline has not affected all age groups equally: while turnout among voters over 65 has remained relatively stable, that of young people under 30 has fallen much more sharply.” Question: according to the passage, the decline in voter turnout — (a) hit all age groups in the same way; (b) hit mainly the youngest voters; (c) does not concern established democracies; (d) is mostly due to older voters; (e) cannot be estimated by age group.
The answer is (b): the text says explicitly that the decline “has not affected all age groups equally” and that it is “much more sharp” among the under-30s. (a) contradicts the passage, (d) inverts the finding (older people remained stable), (c) and (e) are not supported by the text.
2. Reasoning and mathematical language. In a town of 40,000 inhabitants, 35% are under 25. Of these, 20% are enrolled in a university course. How many inhabitants of the town are under 25 and enrolled at university?
Answer: 2,800 inhabitants. The point to keep in mind is to apply the two percentages in sequence on the correct total at each step (first on the total inhabitants, then on the subset already found), not to add them or apply both to the initial total — a frequent mistake when you are in a hurry.
3. Knowledge acquired. Which body of the Italian Republic exercises ordinary legislative power? (a) the President of the Republic; (b) the Council of Ministers; (c) Parliament, made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate; (d) the Constitutional Court; (e) the Superior Council of the Judiciary.
Answer (c): in Italy ordinary legislative power belongs to Parliament (perfect bicameralism: the two chambers have the same powers). The President of the Republic has guarantee functions, the Council of Ministers holds executive power (with the possibility of decree-laws, which nevertheless remain subject to parliamentary conversion), the Constitutional Court judges the legitimacy of laws, and the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM) autonomously governs the judiciary.
Six-week plan
- Weeks 1-2: a timed cold mock exam to understand where to start on each of the three sections; revision of the Constitution and the structure of the State; guided exercises on percentages and proportions.
- Weeks 3-4: active reading of argumentative passages with inference questions; consolidation of contemporary history and political geography; exercises on tables and graphs on statistical-social topics.
- Weeks 5-6: two complete timed mock exams with reasoned correction, to train real timings (2-3 minutes per question depending on the section) and close the weak points that have emerged.
Typical mistakes
- Answering at random without calculating the expected value: with the −0.25 penalty and several possible options, with five options and −0.25 per mistake a completely random answer has an expected value of zero (): it only adds risk. It only becomes worthwhile if you have confidently ruled out at least one option.
- Treating the knowledge section as a history exam: time should be spent on a cross-cutting base, not on lists of dates to memorise.
- Underestimating the maths section because “it’s political science anyway”: it carries 15 questions out of 40, exactly like reading comprehension.
- Confusing change in percentage points with relative change when reading tables: if a figure goes from 20% to 25%, the increase is 5 percentage points but 25% in relative terms (). The wording of the question always specifies which of the two it asks for, and that is where time is lost if you don’t distinguish at once.
- Stopping at the first plausible distractor in reading comprehension, without going back to the passage to check line by line: an agreeable statement is not enough, it has to be written in the text.
Those coming from a classical or linguistic high school, in particular, tend to work only on reading comprehension because it is the most familiar ground, leaving behind precisely the maths section that weighs as much as the other two compared — it is the costliest time-allocation mistake of all, because it can be recovered in a few weeks with targeted exercises, much faster than you would think.
Test yourself with the mock exam
On the site you will find the TOLC-SPS mock exam, with the same structure and the same scoring as the CISIA test: the correct answer is free, the guided step-by-step solution unlocks with your first lesson. If the TOLC-SPS is not the right test for your course and you need a path more focused on reading instead, you will find the twin guide for the TOLC-SU for Humanities. To understand when it is worth sitting it and how many times to retake it, there is When it is worth taking the TOLC; for the logic of the scoring in detail, TOLC score: how it is calculated. For a broader revision of admission tests, the admission tests page. If you prefer a guided path instead of preparing on your own, there is the TOLC-SU and TOLC-SPS preparation.
If your course is Psychology, the twin guide is the one on the TOLC-PSI; for Economics, the one on the TOLC-E; if you are also looking at a university with its own test such as LUISS, the LUISS test has a separate guide.
If you’d like a hand setting up your preparation before your session, the first introductory call is free and lasts half an hour.
