TOLC-SU
TOLC-SU is required by some universities for admission to degree courses in Humanities.
Before booking a TOLC-SU, check the type of test required on the admission notice for your university degree course.
You can find on your university website all the detailed information about the admission procedure and deadlines.
TOLC-SU Structure
The test consists in 50 questions, divided into 3 sections:
- Reading comprehension and knowledge of the Italian language
- Knowledge and skills acquired through studies
- Logical reasoning.
At the end of the test, you find a 30-question section assessing your English language proficiency.
Each section must be completed within a set time limit: once the time is up, you must proceed to the next section. If you complete the section before the time runs out, you can move on to the next one. Please consider that in this case you will not be able to use the remaining time to complete other sections of the test and that you will not be able to go back to the previous section.
| SECTIONS | QUESTIONS | DURATION (mins) |
|---|---|---|
Reading comprehension and knowledge of the Italian language | 30 | 60 |
| Knowledge and skills acquired through studies | 10 | 20 |
| Logical reasoning | 10 | 20 |
| TOTAL | 50 | 100 |
| English | 30 | 15 |
| TOTAL INCLUDING ENGLISH | 80 | 115 |
The TOLC-SU score, except for the English language proficiency section, is based on the number of correct, unanswered, and incorrect responses.
- 1 point for each correct answer,
- 0 points for each unanswered question
- a penalty of 0.25 points for each incorrect answer.
There is no penalty for incorrect answers in the English language proficiency section: the score is determined by 1 point for correct answers and 0 points for incorrect answers or unanswered questions.
TOLC-SU syllabus
The syllabus lists all the topics, divided by section, you need to know in order to prepare for the TOLC.
The questions in the Italian section of reading comprehension are aimed at verifying linguistic skills not only from the point of view of comprehension, but also in relation to the different types of use. There will be three types of texts: literary, critical and journalistic. The questions regarding these texts will allow to test not only the basic grammar skills (morphological and syntactic) and a sufficient command of a rich vocabulary, but also the inferential abilities, the ability to understand hierarchical relationships and to determine formal and semantic relationships between the parts of the texts, as well as being able to decode the implicit and the presupposition.
The questions in the section “Knowledge and skills acquired in school” are aimed at verifying not so much the mastery of disciplinary notions, but the ability to reason from the examples proposed for categorization, identification, recognition of semantic, historical and spatial relations, extrapolation of information from different types of documents. The questions will regard four macro-fields:
- orienting oneself in time and space
- documents, texts and material culture
- theories, concepts and civil life
- instruments and communication.
The questions of the “Logical reasoning” section are intended to test the aptitude of the student rather than to ascertain acquisitions achieved in advanced studies. They do not therefore require specific preliminary preparation.
Depending on the result obtained in the test, the grid below shows the initial preparation level and how to improve your results, if necessary.
| POINTS | RECOMMENDED ENGLISH COURSE |
|---|---|
| ≤ 6 | Take a beginner English course (A1) |
| 7 – 16 | Take a first level English course (A2) |
| 17 – 23 | Take an intermediate English course (B1) |
| 24 – 30 | Take the B1 level English exam with no need to take a course |