TOLC-I

Access to the degree course in Design sostenibile per il sistema alimentare (Sustainable Design for the Food System) is required to pass an admission test called TOLC-I. Information pertaining to the test can be found on the page on the course of study website.

Students intending to enroll in a (three-year)undergraduate degree course in Engineering from the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA) at the University of Parma:

• undergraduate degree course in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• undergraduate degree course in Computer, Electronic and Communications Engineering
• degree course in Computer Technologies Engineering

is required to take an entrance test (TOLC-I).

This is a purely orientational and non-selective test assessment (and self-assessment). However, those who have not taken the test after the last test session (which takes place in October and November) or have failed to meet the prescribed score thresholds will be given an Additional Training Obligation (OFA) (OFA). For the aforementioned DIA degree courses, the TOLC-I test will be considered passed if:

an overall total score of at least 16 points out of 50 (excluding the additional section for "Proof of English Proficiency") and a scores in the Mathematics section of at least 4 points out of 20.

For the 2025/2026 academic year, tests taken in 2024 and 2025 are considered valid.

All details and information about the test can be found below or on the CISIA website www.cisiaonline.it

.

The test is delivered on a computerized platform and can be taken at the University of Parma facilities (TOLC@UNI) or at one's home (TOLC@CASA).

The TOLC@CASAs are in all respects identical to the TOLC@UNIs, the only elements of difference only the mode of delivery, which, thanks to the organizational procedures and technologies adopted, can be carried out at the students' and students' homes.

The TOLC can be repeated several times, but no more than once per calendar month, regardless of the university hub where it is taken.

For the DIA engineering degree courses of the University of Parma, both modes of test delivery are considered valid: TOLC@UNI and TOLC@CASA.

For the year 2025, the TOLC-Is at the University of Parma will be held mainly in-person, on the following dates:

• April 11, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• April 16, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• May 23, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• May 30, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• July 9, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• July 15, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• July 23, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• September 4, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• September 5, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• Sept. 16, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• Oct. 7, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• Oct. 9, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
• Oct. 14, 2025 (Mod. TOLC@UNI)
   

Students are reminded that the TOLC@UNI or TOLC@CASA can be done at any CISIA-member university by 30.11.2025 to not have the OFA awarded, without any difference in the mode of delivery and/or recognition of the same by the University of Parma.

You should still register for the test in time, on the www.cisiaonline.it keeping in mind the following deadlines according to the date of execution:

We encourage students to review the detailed information on how to take the test which is available at www.cisiaonline.it/area-tematica-tolc-cisia/regolamenti

In particular, with reference to the TOLC@HOME students, before booking, must ensure that they have the necessary devices listed in the regulations and that they can set up the room in which they will take the test as indicated here.

In the area dedicated to TOLCs on the CISIA website all detailed information about the test is available.

The entrance test for degree courses in engineering is designed to test whether applicants' aptitude and basic skills are adequate to successfully pursue a course of study in engineering.

The test covers topics in Mathematics, logic, Chemical sciences and physical sciences, and verbal comprehension. The level of knowledge required to take the test is that acquired in high school.

Either those with a high school diploma or students enrolled in the 4th or 5th year of high school may participate in the test. Participation of 4th year students is especially recommended.

The test is organized by the CISIA (Interuniversity Consortium Integrated Systems for Access), a consortium formed by most Italian engineering hubs and is called "TOLC-I" (CISIA OnLine Test for Engineering), or more briefly "TOLC".

It can be taken on multiple dates from March to July ("Early TOLC-I"), or on one of two dates in the first half of September ("Ordinary TOLC-I"), or on one date in October and November ("Make-up TOLC-I"), see the appropriate Session Calendar for this purpose.

The TOLC-I test can be taken at any CISIA member university hub. The TOL Test for Engineering taken at Politecnico di Milano is also recognized. Students with previous careers, that is, those who enroll coming from other courses of study, may be exempt from the test under certain conditions. Those who fall into one of these situations are invited to carefully consult the Exemption Criteria section (tests taken elsewhere and past careers).

The scores achieved in the test are immediately visible on the screen at the end of the test. You will, however, be able to obtain a CISIA certificate with all the scores you achieved by downloading it at any time from your personal area of the www.cisiaonline.it.

Those who have passed the test (see the Scores and Passing Thresholds heading) will not be given any further notice.

All enrollees who after the last test session of their first year of enrolment (which takes place in October and November) have failed the test or not taken it at all and do not fall among the waiver cases in the Waiver Criteria section, will be assigned an Additional Training Obligation (OFA), described in the appropriate section. The final allocation of the OFA will take place after the October and November sessions of the test, and students found to be subject to the obligation will be notified by a special letter sent to them via email.

Enrolment in a DIA engineering degree course and inscription and taking the test are separate and independent procedures and neither automatically implies the other. Enrolment can take place even in the absence of the test, however, taking and passing the test by the make-up session (October and November) is necessary for the enrollee not to be assigned an Additional Training Obligation (OFA) (see below).

For enrolment in Parma, the score achieved in the test taken Parma or in any of the hubs consortiumed with CISIA is valid.

Those who wish to matriculate in Parma having taken the TOLC-I test in other university hubs that are members of CISIA in the current or previous year do not have to take any special action: the scores they have achieved will automatically be recognized as valid for Parma as well. Those who had taken the TOL test for Engineering at Politecnico di Milano or who are enrolling coming from other courses of study can find in the section Criteria for Exemption from the Parma Entrance Test the information and the necessary steps to obtain the recognition of the test taken or the previous career.

The TOLC-I is an individual test, different from candidate to candidate composed of questions automatically and randomly selected from the CISIA TOLC database through proprietary software made and managed by CISIA. All generated TOLC-Is of the same type have a similar difficulty.

The TOLC-I test consists of a series of 50 multiple choice questions, only one of which is correct, broken down into the following sections:

To determine whether or not the test is passed, the hub in Parma uses only the scores achieved in the first four sections, thus excluding the additional section for the "English language proficiency test". The latter is still dispensed because the score in it could be used by other hubs.

The duration of the TOLC-I test is 1 hour and 50 minutes (110 minutes) + 15 minutes for the English language section. Students not interested in the English language section may close the test before beginning that section.

At the following link you will find a list of topics on which the test ("Syllabus") is focused.

The level of knowledge required to take the test is that acquired in high school.

For more information on the TOLC test you can consult the relevant page on the CISIA website.

The maximum score obtainable on the TOLC-I is 50, and is calculated according to the following scheme:

• 1 point for each correct answer
• 0 points for each answer not given
• -0.25 points for each incorrect answer

For engineering degree courses at the DIA of the University of Parma, the TOLC-I test is considered passed if you obtain:

an overall total score of at least 16 points out of 50
and
a score in the Mathematics section of at least 4 points out of 20.

The scores achieved are visible immediately on the screen at the end of the test. It will still be possible to obtain a CISIA certificate with all the scores achieved by downloading it at any time from the personal area of the www.cisiaonline.it.

On the Statistics of the CISIA website are the distributions of scores obtained by students nationwide in previous years as well as many other useful statistical data about the test

For matriculated students who after the last session of the test ("TOLC-I make-up, which takes place in October and November) have not taken the test or have failed to meet the stipulated score thresholds and are not among the cases provided for in the Exemption Criteria section will be given an Additional Training Obligation (OFA), described in the specific section, and will be notified by a special letter sent to them via email some time after the last session of the test ("TOLC-I make-up") is held.

In the case of a test repeated several times (in Parma or elsewhere), the final outcome attributed to the student will be the one corresponding to the highest total score (among the outcomes that do not give rise to OFAs, if any).

WARNING - The criteria for passing the test may differ from Athenaeum to Athenaeum.

The test is considered passed if the minimum thresholds for the total score and the score achieved in the Mathematics section are reached. Enrolled Residence halls who, after the remedial test sessions of their first year of enrolment, have failed the test or not taken the test at all and do not fall within the cases stipulated in the waiver criteria, will be given an Additional Training Obligation (OFA) consisting in the obligation to take one of the two Mathematics exams scheduled in the first year (*) before they can take any exam in the 2nd year. Students who had not yet removed the OFA at the time of inscription to Year 2 may still enroll in Year 2, but as long as one of the said two exams has not been passed, they may only take any Year 1 exams for which they may have owed. These OFA removal conditions also apply to students who matriculated in previous academic years. Those who, having exhausted the remedial sessions, have obtained the OFA (even in previous years) will not be able to remove it by repeating the normal test in the calendar years following the year of enrolment, but only by passing one of the Mathematics exams provided for the degree course (*).

(*) For the degree course in Computer Technologies Engineering and for the degree course in Computer, electronic and communications engineering: "Mathematical Analysis" or "Geometry and Algebra"; for the degree course in Civil and Environmental Engineering: "Mathematical Analysis 1" or "Geometry".

Students who score high in the "Mathematics" section of the TOLC may be awarded the following increments that will be applied to the grade obtained in one of the exams listed below taken at one of the DIA engineering degree courses at the University of Parma:

- 1 extra point for those who score at least 12 points out of 20;
- 2 extra points for those who score at least 16 points out of 20.

The increments will be given to the grade of "Geometry" for those enrolled in the Civil and Environmental Engineering degree course and the grade of "Mathematical Analysis" for those enrolled in the Computer technologies engineering degree course and the Computer, electronic and communications engineering degree course. To obtain the increase, it will be necessary to submit to the professor, according to his instructions, a printout of the certification of the score achieved in the test, which can be downloaded from the personal area of the CISIA website.

Registrations for the TOLC tests are made on the appropriate page on the CISIA website, after inscription.
 

Participation in the TOLC costs €35. Inscriptions are possible up to 7 days before the test date. (However, check the exact timing on the appropriate page on the CISIA website).

PLEASE NOTE: When inscribing, you will be asked to provide the details of an ID, the same that must be shown, along with the payment receipt, to the classroom committee on the day of the test, in the case of an in-person test.

As part of the inscription procedure for the test to be conducted on the CISIA website, students may declare whether they have disabilities or have Specific Learning Difficulties (SLDs); in such cases, specific aids and/or additional time may also be requested depending on the declared disability or disorder. At the time of test inscription, the necessary attestations and certifications to document disability or Specific Learning Difficulties status must be submitted to the hub through a special document upload form provided by CISIA. The Ateneo Office for Students with Disabilities and Specific Learning Difficulties (cai.unipr.it) will then make contact with each student to make known the measures planned for him or her to take the test.

• Online Training Test
  The CISIA provides an "Training Test". This is a version of the test with reduced number of questions and time available, but with questions of the same type and difficulty as those on the full test.
• List of topics covered by the CISIA Test
  See the related page on the CISIA website.

The level of knowledge required is that normally acquired in high school.

Those who wish to matriculate in one of DIA's first-cycle degree courses in Engineering in Parmahaving taken the TOLC-I test at any of the CISIA member university hubs in the current or previous year, need not take any special action because the scores thus obtained will be automatically recognized.
In the case of a test repeated several times (in Parma or elsewhere), the final outcome attributed to the student will be the one corresponding to the highest total score (among the outcomes that do not result in OFAs, if any).

In the following two additional cases (waiver cases), taking the TOLC-I test is not required, provided the requirements specified further below are met:
1) Students who have taken the Milan Polytechnic's Engineering TOL test;
2) Students who are enrollingcoming from other courses of study (i.e., with previous careers)

In these two cases, students must explicitly request recognition of the test taken (case no. 1)or prior career (case no.2),by performing the specific procedure indicated below under each situation. In the case of a procedure carried out after the date indicated or not carried out at all, the student will be awarded the Additional Training Obligation (OFA) for missing test (OFA, see above).

1. Milan Polytechnic TOL test taken in the years 2024 or 2025

In this case, taking the TOLC-I test is not required as long as the sum of the TOL scores (i.e., those found in the test outcome document [screenshot] downloaded from PoliMI, in the "Test Details" section, "Score" column) obtained in the areas: "Mathematics," "Verbal Comprehension," and "Physics" is greater than or equal to 16 and the score obtained in the section of "Mathematics" is greater than or equal to 12; the scores calculated in this way are valid only for the purpose of the exemption and the consequent non-attribution of the OFA.

--- The procedure to be performed in this case #1 is as follows:

1. Download the test result document (screenshot) from the Politecnico di Milano website and save it.
2. Rename said file as follows: TOL_surname_name.xxx, where xxx is the file type which can be: pdf (preferred), png, jpg, jpeg bmp, doc, docx.
3. Follow the online procedure is located at: www.ce.unipr.it/tolc/TOL_PoliMI, no later than Nov. 30, 2025.

2. Previous academic career pursued at other courses of study or other universities

For students in this situation, the following two subcases are distinguished:

2.1 Student transferring from an Engineering degree course of the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma to another Engineering course of the same Department.

In this case the student does not have to take the test or carry out any action or procedure because the previous situation remains valid as if the transition had not taken place, i.e.: in case of a passed test in the year of enrolment or OFA already removed, no test is required; on the other hand, if an OFA not removed still existed the student cannot take the test and will still have to remove the OFA by taking one of the scheduled Mathematics exams before being able to take the second-year exams of the new degree course.

2.2 Student from a degree course different from the engineering degree courses of the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma who switches or transfers to an engineering course of that Department.
In this case the test is not required only if at the time of passing or transferring to the chosen degree course at least 5 CFUs acquired in the course of origin are validated, excluding foreign language eligibility. In this case, in order to obtain the exemption from the test, it is necessary to perform the procedure below.

--- The procedure to be performed in case 2.2 is as follows:

1. In your personal area of the Esse3 management system reach the file "Self-certification Inscription with exams", with the path: Secretariat > Self-certifications etc.
2. Make sure that said file shows your inscription in the degree course to which you transferred (and not the one you came from) and that any exams taken or recognized in the transfer are indicated. Since this document will contain the said information only after the Degree Council has approved the request for transfer or passage, you should periodically check that it is up-to-date because until this document is up-to-date, you cannot proceed
3. When in said file ("Self-certification Enrollment with Examinations") appears your inscription to the new degree course and any examinations taken are indicated, download the file.
4. Rename said file thus: CFU_surname_name.pdf
5. Follow the online procedure found at: www.ce.unipr.it/tolc/CFUpregressa.

The procedure should be carried out as soon as the required Self-Certification document is available in one's personal area,without date limitation.

This is an intensive Mathematics course conducted in September in the weeks immediately preceding the start of classes that is designed to recall or provide students with the minimum knowledge necessary to profitably attend courses taught during the first year. Course attendance is strongly recommended for all students, even those who have passed the entrance test. The pre-course is then a particularly useful tool for those who have not yet passed the test to successfully tackle the remedial TOLC-I in October.
The Precourse schedule can be viewed within the following page.
 

If the information reached by these links turns out to refer to the previous year it should be considered as a useful example pending the publication of valid information for the current year.