CEnT-S: CISIA's English admission test, explained

If you are applying for an English-taught Bachelor's in engineering, the sciences, pharmacy, economics or psychology at an Italian public university, the test in your call is very likely the CEnT-S. It is run by CISIA, the consortium of universities that has organised Italy's admission tests for years, and since November 2025 it has been CISIA's only test in English. This guide explains how it works, what changes for applicants starting in 2027/28, and the part that is easy to miss: the score is the same everywhere, but every university reads it differently.

What the CEnT-S is

CEnT stands for CISIA English Test. CEnT-S is the version for the sciences, and the only one running today. Under CISIA's rules it can be used for English-taught degrees in engineering, the sciences, biology, pharmacy, economics, psychology and agriculture. It replaced the English TOLC tests (English TOLC-I, TOLC-E and TOLC-F) in November 2025.

It is not a test only for foreign students. Anyone applying to an English-taught degree that asks for it sits the same test, wherever they went to school. What differs from call to call is whether a university uses it for its non-EU quota or assesses those applicants another way, so read the call for your own route.

CISIA lists 19 universities that use it, among them Sapienza, Padua, Pisa, Florence, Trento, Pavia, Trieste, Milan Statale, Milano-Bicocca and Politecnico di Milano. Other universities accept it for individual programs, and Politecnico di Torino adopts it for international applicants from 2027/28.

The format

For 2026/27 entry the CEnT-S had five sections, each with its own time limit:

CISIA's structure page now describes a sixth section placed first: reading and comprehension in English, 10 questions in 30 minutes, at B2 level. That makes 65 questions in 140 minutes. Prepare for this longer version; the rules for your test period settle it.

Every question has five options. You may move on from a section before its time is up, but the time you leave behind is lost.

How it is scored, and why the same score means different things

• Raw score: 1 point for a correct answer, 0 for a blank, minus 0.25 for a wrong answer.
• Normalised score: after each test period closes, CISIA adjusts each section for the difficulty of the questions you were given. This normalised score is your official result, and it can be used at every university that takes the same type of CEnT sat in the same way.
• Each university decides what it needs. A university can weight the sections, count only some of them and set its own minimum. For 2026/27 Padua asked non-EU applicants for a weighted 38 for Information Engineering but 10 for Economics, Governance and Decision-Making; Sapienza asked for 18 out of 55 for Business Sciences and only a score above zero for Applied Computer Science and AI. Economics degrees often count only the mathematics and reasoning sections.

So "what is a good CEnT-S score?" has no single answer. The answer is in the call of each program on your list, and it is worth writing those minimums down side by side before you plan how many attempts to make.

At a university or from home

The CEnT-S runs in two ways, and the university you apply to decides which it accepts:

• CEnT@UNI: in a testing room at a university. It does not have to be the university you want to enrol at.
• CEnT@HOME: online from home, on a video call supervised by CISIA, from the country you declare when you book. VPNs and proxies are not allowed.

Test periods and attempts

CISIA runs the CEnT-S in test periods it calls macro-periods. You can sit it once in each period, and each period ends with the normalised scores.

• Dates: in 2025/26 the test was held in the afternoon, Italian time. Padua's admissions pages list 26 November and 17 December 2026 in the first period.
• Validity: a result counts for the enrolment year it was sat for. The 2025/26 results were guaranteed for 2026/27 enrolment until at least 31 October 2026. You cannot sit it a year early, in your second-to-last year of school.
• Missed a booked test? CISIA's rules allow one free rebooking.

Old English TOLC results

If you sat an English TOLC before November 2025, check before you rely on it. For 2026/27 some calls still accepted those results (Sapienza and Pisa among them) and others refused them (Ca' Foscari and Bologna's International Studies). Each 2027/28 call decides for itself.

A plan for 2027/28 applicants

• List your programs and read their 2026/27 calls now. Note which sections count, the minimum, and whether CEnT@HOME is accepted. The 2027/28 calls may change these, but the pattern rarely changes completely.
• If you are applying from outside the EU, aim for the first or second period. Non-EU windows open early: Padua's non-EU window for its restricted-access programs runs from 7 January to 7 March 2027, and several universities want the result before you can apply.
• Prepare mathematics and reasoning first. They are the two largest sections and the ones economics degrees count.
• Prepare for English reading too, in case the longer version applies.
• Use the attempts. One sitting per period means a first attempt in winter still leaves time for a better one in spring.

Questions applicants ask

Rules change every year: always confirm dates in the official call for your year.